Hidden in Plain Sight
by randominuyasha
Summary: Sequel to What Lies Beneath. The spy and medic are in trouble. Desperate, the spy sets out and comes across others in the desert. Together they set out on an epic adventure to exact revenge on the one that's caused all their problems from day one.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The spy held onto her medic for dear life, waiting of the imminent explosion. Had only one of the soldiers been firing at them they may have had a chance of escape, even if it would be by fluke, but with rockets coming from both sides it looked like it would be impossible to evade the attack.

As she hugged him closely she listened to his soft and shallow breathing. Somehow it managed to calm her down somewhat. It was calm and steady despite what was happening around them, bringing her a sense of serenity. She knew that this was because he was in pretty rough shape, and that thought crossing through her mind pained her, but there was nothing she could do to help herself, let alone him.

Closing her eyes she listened to his breathing until it was overtaken by the shrill whistling sounds of the two soldiers' rockets. This was it: This is where everything would end and all their hard work would be thrown out the window by the power hungry RED and BLU corporations, the very people they'd been trying to escape.

Soon enough she heard the deafening explosion and felt the intense heat, and instantly thought that this was the end. But after only a few seconds she realized something was very off. Although the heat was scorching and the noise left her able only to hear a seemingly never-ending ringing, she knew something had gone awry. Neither she nor the medic had bitten the dust by then, while she'd expected them to be obliterated instantly.

Her eyes flashing open she franticly looked around to see what was going on. The initial brightness of the area left her virtually without eyes for a few moments, but they adjusted as the blinding white light faded somewhat, and she could then properly see the scene.

She found a few new craters scattered about, dents in the earth that a few of the stray rockets had created. For the most part they'd been targeted at the same location, but in almost every batch there were one or two that would miss, if even by a few feet. This sight led her to wonder: if the strays had drifted and missed them, where were all the others?

Seeing no evidence of the other five rockets on the ground the spy instinctively looked up, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the rest of the rockets.

Within seconds she found what had happened to them, and a look of surprise crossed her face. It took her only another moment to deduce what had happened to produce this random turn of events.

Amongst the melancholy of sounds nobody had noticed the approaching transport helicopter until it had been too late. Both of the soldiers had seen it, though not until after they'd each fired off four of their rockets. Before their eyes all but three of the rockets had collided with the helicopter. It was a near impossible shot that left the whole of the two teams with their mouths hanging open in awe at the pure chance of it.

As the spy looked directly above her she very quickly realized that it wasn't at all safe to stay there. As she stared up at the explosion pieces of the blue painted metal rained down all around her. IF she wanted any chance of getting out of there alive, she had to get moving; otherwise she'd likely be crushed by the wreckage.

Grabbing hold of the medic's armpits she began hauling him over the barren land. The work was somewhat slow as he was heavier than he looked, but she would rather try to drag him to safety with her than let him die. A searing pain in her side told her to stop, to try and save only herself to lessen the pain, but she ignored it, dragging him along regardless.

It wasn't long before she collapsed, partly due to the pain and partly due to exhaustion. Glancing upward again she saw that she'd at least gotten them away from the immediate danger. Various parts and pieces of metal were still being thrown every which way, but they weren't nearly as big and dangerous as if they would have been directly under the contact spot.

"Damn it all..." the spy muttered to herself. This was shaping out to be one heck of a day; some amazing alone time with her medic, two friends and comrades killed without any warning, what had seemed like an inescapable death... she honestly didn't know what to think of all of this.

Her thoughts weren't able to wander through any more of that at all, though, for they were still in a pickle. As she'd been dragging the medic away they'd both been pelted with sharp pieces of flaming hot metal and debris. Even now she had to almost constantly dance about to dodge the larger bits, though there was no way to fully avoid the wreckage.

Once things calmed down a bit she allowed herself to take a moment to catch her breath. The sky was dimming own now to its usual night time blackness, save for the smouldering ruins of the transport craft, which caused the moonlight to cast eerie shadows across the ground. Debris had stopped raining down, and everything seemed to have become quieter, making it seem as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened.

The spy reached into her pocket, hoping to find the mini-flashlight she'd taken from the pyro's stash of survival items. Luckily through everything that had happened it was still there, and when she took it out and flicked it on she found that it was still in working order. Times like these made her happy that she was nearly always on the prowl.

The moonlight provided a good basic light, but she needed something a little more focused. She planned to find a shelter for her and the medic among the wreckage, one that would also serve as a decent hiding place.

At first she saw absolutely nothing of interest, but a second, more detailed scan of the area turned up something that defiantly got her attention. To her left, half-buried under what looked to be the tail of the helicopter was a spy dressed all in blue. His clothes were tattered and torn and his left arm missing completely, but there was no mistaking him as anything other than a spy.

"Pyro must've gone a bit trigger happy when she fled with the medic..." she speculated. The mental image that made its way into her mind came with a chuckle as she imagined what might have happened.

She didn't have long to fantasize about times past, however, for the silence of the night was soon broken. She could hear voices, still distant, but voices nonetheless. She knew she'd have to find a hiding place soon, but she figured she still had a bit of time. They were a long way off yet and it would take them some time to get there.

She'd look for someplace to hide soon enough, but for now something about this BLU spy intrigued her. A little closer than before she examined his body. Something about him felt different, almost as if she'd previously known him or something. Soon enough something caught her eye, making her forget all about that nagging feeling.

As the small beam of light swept across the man's limp lifeless body out of the corner of her eye she saw a slight golden glint coming from just inside his blue suit. Reaching into the tattered cloth she felt a tinge of regret, for raiding dead bodies definitely wasn't something she prided herself on. But times were different now. She had no supplies so this was her only way of obtaining things that could lead to her survival.

Soon she held in her hand what looked to be a golden pocket watch, engraved with the likeliness of a bird. It was a larger locket-type enclosure at the end of a medium sized chain. For a moment or two she examined it, trying to figure out what it was and how it worked. After coming up with nothing she slipped it into her own pocket. She was about to leave the body be when she thought of one other thing that would come in handy.

In the fray her cloaking device had been literally ripped apart, torn to pieces by the scraps of flying metal that had been whipping through the air. One particularly sharp piece had cut through the material holding it to her wrist, slicing through her flesh as well. It wasn't a terribly deep wound and she'd been able to ignore it for the most part, but in the end she'd lost her only way of really hiding.

Luckily she found that this dead spy still had a cloaking device strapped to his only remaining intact wrist. She smiled, though only a little, as she worked around the dead man's wrist to obtain what looked to be a normal watch. She knew better, though; she knew it wasn't a watch at all.

Once she had it in her hands, however, she realized that it wasn't the same as her old one. It was newer looking, more advanced.

"This spy must have been high up... either that or I was behind on the times," she said aloud to no one in particular. Quickly she fitted the crocodile skin print straps over her right wrist, making sure it was secure. She'd spent too much time here and had to act quickly now, for the voices were steadily coming closer.

"Where d'you think they were blasted to?" a voice said gruffly. The spy took the owner of the voice to be one of the soldiers', and by the sound of it there were a lot closer than she'd initially thought.

"Dun ask meh!" the voice of a demoman answered, "Yer tha one tha' fired tha bloody rockets! I dun even know why I'm here... you blew 'em up. I should be back at tha base celebratin'!"

"Oh, will you quit your yapping? We got ourselves into this, both RED and BLU, and we have to make sure we finish it. They've caused us too much trouble already. We have to remove them from the picture so things can get back to normal," a sniper muttered just loud enough for the spy to hear.

"Hey, you could've finished it at any time. If it had been me that'd been on RED and lookin' over everything..." a scout pointed out cockily, calling the sniper on his many missed opportunities.

"Damn it, scout, I know that. We all had more than enough chances to stop this before it was set in motion," the sniper cursed, his tone dark. His voice softened as if in self-hate as he spoke further, "Why didn't I at least try to stop it? I should have known something was up..."

It was clear that even though he'd defended everyone's actions, he felt himself partly to blame for all of this. The spy had been under his care, and something hand undoubtedly been wrong with her. But there was nothing he could do now except make sure things were put right again.

The spy realized that they were mere yards away, and knew she had to do something. If they were to even take a few steps in her direction they'd be able to see over the large pile of junk that was hiding them, and by the way they were talking that wouldn't lead to anything good. Unsure of how to work this new watch she fumbled with it franticly, pushing the right button at the last minute. The cloak came into effect just as the group came into sight.

"Well, here's that dumbass medic... where'd the spy get off to, though?" the BLU scout questioned. In truth he didn't think much of it, thought she'd been blown to smithereens by the blast, but he voiced the question that was on the others' minds regardless.

"Don't know... we've searched all around. This is the only place left," the BLU soldier remarked, scratching his chin in thought.

"We could leave 'er at that, go an' have a drink," suggested the RED demoman.

"Of course you'd be thinking that..." the RED sniper commented. He looked a bit more before continuing, "She might still be out there, probably stole away before we got here..."

The spy looked at the group nervously, fearing the time when her invisibility would run out. The option of making a run for it had crossed her mind, but she'd quickly dismissed it as fruitless. The cloaking device had a strict timer on it; it was rather difficult to make use of it wisely under normal circumstances, and she knew she wouldn't be able to make it far at all in her current state.

She'd decided that although it would likely prove worthless either way, she'd stay be the medic's side, hidden as she was. Still, the thought of being discovered and killed without a chance to defend herself frightened her. Aside from her eyes, which darted about nervously in anticipation of when they'd find her, she didn't move a muscle.

Nervously she thought that he cloak was about to run out but still stayed perfectly still, out of fear more than anything else. She closed her eyes in anticipation of when her cloak would dissipate. Much to her surprise, though, she found that the group of enemies never rushed her, didn't even notice she was there.

A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead, making its way across her furrowed brow, as she carefully opened one eye and let it rest on the group. Just as she'd thought they were all still crowded around the medic, deciding what to do next. They didn't realize she was there because her cloak, which seemed to have infinite power, was still in effect.

::End of Chapter 1::

And here it is, the long-awaited (but not really) sequel to my most popular (and only) multi-chaptered Team Fortress 2 fanfiction! I had some requests to make this and after mulling a few ideas around in my mind for a bit I finally straightened out what it's going to be like. And I like where it's going.

Here's a sneak peek (that really won't give away too much): there shall be new characters, new environments, a new plot (obviously), some interesting twists, and awesome stuff like that. I must warn you, in the first few chapters things can get kinda violent for reasons you shall soon behold. But it's Team Fortress 2, so who cares?!?

Now, some of you wondered how on earth the spy and medic would survive that. Now you know. More will be explained later, don't worry. After all, this is just the beginning...

I hope to post a new chapter every week. In writing I'm up to (halfway through) chapter eight, and typed out I've completed chapter 4. That gives me a bit of time to get ahead of the game, which I definately like. Makes it less likely for me to go on hiatus in the middle, which is something I don't particularly like to do. Anyway, that being said, chapter two should be posted next Saturday! Happy reading!

TF2 (c) Valve


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Although her cloak seemed to not be running out, her fear kept her rooted to the ground. Silently she cursed, mad that she'd been degraded to hiding in a corner in a way that couldn't be called productive. It wasn't spy-like at all, or not in her books at least, but it was the only chance she had at surviving. Not knowing what else to do she peered at the group, listening.

"Is it just me, or does it feel like someone's watching us?" the scout muttered, feeling the spy's eyes on the back of his head. Upon hearing this she shifted her gaze quickly and took a few careful steps to her right, though it was too late. They were already suspicious, knowing she was a spy and that she could be anywhere.

"Medic's still alive, though his breathing is shallow. He might know something about her whereabouts, since they seemed to be together and all," the sniper said, poking the medic's leg with the tip of his kukri gently.

"Mahbeh we shoul' take 'im back to the base, question 'im," the demoman suggested. It was just a way to get back to the base so he could divulge himself in his stores of liquor, but it was a suggestion that would work to their benefit as well.

"Yes, take the man prisoner! A prisoner of war, just like the old times... now those were times when people knew respect and the proper way to kill a man," the soldier chuckled, taking a moment to fondly remember his time in the war.

"Yeah, yeah! We'll keep him in the BLU base, keep him locked up," the scout agreed, a devilish smile flickering across his face as he thought of having a prisoner in his possession.

"Hold on a minute," the sniper spoke up, interrupting the scout's thoughts, "Way I understand it, you over at BLU suffered some heavy losses because of that pyro. And not to mention you won't be getting any new recruits any time soon because you're transport ship was just shot down. RED has more people and we're more equipped for dealing with prisoners. And this time I'll make sure nothing goes wrong."

"Fine, but if we want to... interrogate him, BLU will have full permission at any time to do that," the soldier complied.

"Fine bah me. Not like we have anything of value since they took our intelligence. 'Ey, we could try to get tha whereabouts of 'em too," the demoman added, remembering the two missing briefcases. They'd been so focused on eliminating this new threat that they'd nearly completely forgotten about retrieving their missing plans.

"Whoa, whoa, hey, whoa!" the scout burst angrily, "We're enemies, we shouldn't be working together, let alone able to get into the others' base safely... when this is done, nothing will change. Just 'cause we're together on this now apparently, that doesn't mean I won't bash your head in later! Got that?"

"Fair enough. I feel the same way, to be honest. I'm just not as rowdy and obnoxious as you to say it like that aloud," the sniper retorted, rolling his eyes at the scout.

"Why you!" He lunged at the sniper, bat at the ready, wanting to go against their truce and bash the Australian's head in right now. Before he could, however, he found himself on the ground, having just had the soldier's shovel rammed into the back of his knee in mid step, causing him to fall flat on his face just short of the sniper.

"Hold your damn horses, son!" he scolded, folding up his shovel and putting it away. There was a time and place for everything, and now was neither the time nor the place for the scout's shenanigans.

The scout scrambled up, using his bat as support as he regained the breath that had been knocked out of him from the fall. Nastily he glared at his attacker, backing down for the time being around the outside of the group.

"Well, we 'ad better git goin', before it's too dark ta see," the half-blind man suggested.

The lot of them agreed, each moving the help carry the medic back to the RED base. While the scout and demoman each took a leg the sniper and soldier took hold of an arm each.

Without another word they began to walk away, the injured medic held steadily between the four of them. Soon they were out of sight, though the spy still didn't allow herself to move. She waited until the sounds of their footsteps had died away altogether before she even thought of venturing out from her hiding place.

Still she was sceptical about the level of safety in the area, but she knew that she couldn't stay there forever. Letting go of all her worry and doubt for just a second she stepped forward.

The cloak stayed on her, though she noticed that the more she walked the faster it drained. A curious look crossed her face. It should have run out long ago, yet it only dissipated once she started to move. Wanting to see if it had been just a fluke, a malfunction, she continued walking until the cloak removed itself from her body, waited for it to recharge, and again activated, shrouding herself in invisibility. For a few moments she waited, until normally the power would run out, and found that she was still hidden. As soon as she so much as took a step forward, however, it began to drain.

"Wow..." she murmured, "Definitely new technology. I can already tell this'll come in handy sooner than later."

Not knowing what else to do the spy crawled under an overhanging piece of the transport ship, lying down. Already she knew what she had to do – rescue the medic – but first she'd have to get some rest. The sky was steadily growing lighter and she didn't want to do a night time assault, as she felt that they'd see it coming soon like that. On top of that she had to assume that things would get violent when she conducted the rescue, and in her current state she wouldn't stand a chance. She had no weapons, so she'd have to rely on stealth as much as possible.

The ground was hard and uncomfortable, but she didn't have the luxury to care. This was all she had at the moment, and though she'd give anything for a soft bed – not even one of the military issue cots, a real bed with a mattress and the works – she'd have to make do with what she had. It took her what seemed like forever, but eventually her mind drifted into a sea of sleep.

************

The spy's eyes flashed open and she awoke with a start. Jolting into a sitting position she felt metal hit her head hard, and she slowly crouched over. For a few moments she'd forgotten where she was, but soon remembered, her nerves calming down somewhat.

Rubbing her head she tried to think up a plan. She had no weapons aside from her cloaking device and the pocket watch she'd found, and she didn't even know what the pocket watch did. It would be a difficult operation to say the least, but she was sure she could do it. She had to save her medic.

"I suppose..." she started, talking to herself to keep her thoughts straight more than anything, "I should head off. Maybe I can snatch myself a medkit to help my wounds heal... god knows I'll have to lurk there for a while since the cloak drains when I move..."

She had a small flicker of doubt in her mind, but nodded a few times, convincing herself that this was the right time to leave. By going now she had nothing to lose; but by waiting to depart she'd only be prolonging the medic's suffering.

Putting on a determined face she started off, crawling from her shelter and surveying the scene. Now that the sun was high in the sky she could clearly see the destruction of the helicopter. Twisted metal littered the rocky landscape and blood stained the dust. She could now spot bodies among the wreckage, some nearly whole and others torn to pieces. Here she would glimpse a leg, there a hand. There was no way to identify them, aside from a select one or two.

Sadly she shook her head. So much damage had been caused just to try to eliminate four harmless people. It was a reckless and careless technique, but there was nothing she could do about it now unless she could somehow find a time machine and change the soldiers' actions. These people, with their unknowing deaths, had saved her and the medic, also leaving the others without a few of their own.

Trying to put all this to the back of her mind she walked from the area, making her way back to what had been the GREEN team's camp. It too had changed drastically, the ground now home to craters which held the corpses of her fallen comrades. She took a moment of silence for them before even thinking of moving on.

There was one last thing to do before heading to the RED base to rescue her medic, and that was checking on the two hidden briefcases. She found them soon enough, blown from their hiding place in the ground by one of the stray rockets. They lay open and broken, their contents scattered this way and that, many of the papers in cinders or missing.

So that was it. Neither RED nor BLU had anything to fight for any longer in this war. They'd blown up their only reason to fight, with neither side winning. But this likely wouldn't be the end. They'd probably find something else, some other plans for a devastating weapon, to fight over once they found out about what they'd done. It was in their blood.

Nevertheless, they still likely didn't realize they'd destroyed their goals. In their minds the medic was still of use to them – how long they'd be under that assumption was the question. Wither way she knew that this couldn't end well.

"Before something really bad..." she started, though she found she was unable to finish the sentence. She cut herself off and said instead, "I've got to get going. No more fruitless searching for what I know isn't there."

Again she walked toward the two fortresses. Until she reached her destination she let nothing else distract her. Faster than she thought she arrived, and after only an hour or two of constant and concentrated walking she stood at the fence that surrounded the battleground.

"Well, this is it..." she muttered, climbing over the fence. Almost instantly her awareness level went up; she was in enemy territory now, and she had to be as careful as humanly possible.

Stealthily as she could she made her way through the base, stopping to cloak every time she heard a noise. Stopping so many times and for so long (for she didn't uncloak and moved the absolute minimum to conserve her cloaking power until she was absolutely positive it was safe) cost her valuable time, but it was the only way to conduct the operation successfully.

Soon she was in the basement, searching for their captive. Just to make sure she was checking every supply room, even the smallest which was very rarely in use. If both the RED and BLU teams would be in on this, there was no way they'd fit in that tiny room.

While she was there she thought to snatch a weapon or two, but quickly found that it wouldn't happen. Just to be on the safe side they'd taken all their spare weapons, locking them up and hiding them.

The only thing she found was an ancient-looking medkit, which he hastily stole and opened. In almost no time the majority of its contents had been applied to her wounds, and she was again good to go.

Shaking her head she closed the door, making her way up to the wider set of stairs. At the top she cloaked, hiding in the rightmost corner of the shed that housed the stairwell. She was in the main part of the fortress now: It would be crawling with enemies no doubt.

Sure enough she had voices, though they were faint. Taking a chance she darted from her hiding place, making her way to the corner of the courtyard walkway. Already her cloak was nearly half-drained from that small advance.

Straining her eyes she glimpsed the inside of the largest supply room as a soldier opened the door to get inside. The REDs and BLUs were apparently congregating, but among them she couldn't see her medic. It made sense, to keep the prisoner separate from their sleeping quarters.

There was only one place left to look. As soon as the door was again closed she slunk through the base. At this point she didn't have time to focus on being stealthy. IF she wanted to make it she'd have to run the rest of the way, compromising her cloak's power supply. And run she did.

Soon she was at the door to the second biggest supply room, where she was sure they were keeping her medic. Already she'd taken so many chances, but she was so close now to her goal. She couldn't stop now, now when she was this close.

With the understanding that either way it would be dangerous she opened the door, jolting in and closing it as fast as she could. Luckily she found that nobody was guarding their prisoner. He was tied up pretty well and could barely move: They must have thought a guard unnecessary as he wasn't going anywhere.

"Medic..." she whispered, making her way toward him. A flood of emotions came rushing to her, but she attempted to suppress them. She still had to rescue him: the celebration would come later. "Medic, I'm here to save you."

"I knew zat you vould come..." One of his eyes opened and upon seeing her a smile flickered across his face. His happiness didn't last for long, though, for he soon heard footsteps approaching. He whispered back to her as best he could, "Mien spy... hid... zey are coming back..."

She nodded nervously and without another word she backed herself into a corner. Once she was in position she stayed perfectly still, and soon a large group of enemies burst through the door.

::End of Chapter 2::

It's Sarurday again, and you know what that means! That's right, it's time for another chapter of TF2 fanfiction, Hidden in Plain Sight! Be excited now! *points a flamethrower in yo face*

Just kidding. But really, it is some TF2 fanfiction here!

Not to worry y'all, things are going to get interesting very quickly. They're not taking any chances and she's found the doctor. I wonder what could happen next...? *evil grin*

The suspense will kill you.

Anyway, I'll upload another chapter next Saturday! Haven't been working on this one as much because I recently entered a contest and have been having a rather busy first week of summer. But don't worry, I plan to keep this one on track no matter what.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"C'mon, let's go!" the RED scout cried excitedly, as he ran backward through the door. As the others followed he continued to jog backward, unaware of his surroundings. He was too excited for the 'interrogation' to care. Much to his surprise he was soon laying on the floor at the cloaked spy's feet, having just tripped over the medic.

"Hold your horses, private! There's a way to go about this!" the BLU soldier denied, holding back a chuckle.

"Hudda ha!"

"No, no, my enemy pyro," the RED medic shook his head. He hadn't fully understood what the flame-loving man had said, but he got the notion that it involved violence and flames.

Soon the lot of them (from the BLU side a pyro, soldier, and engineer while from RED a medic, scout, and heavy) were gathered around the prisoner, who was tied up by both his hands and his feet to prevent any productive movement. The spy made sure to stay perfectly still so she wouldn't be discovered. Her plan was to wait until this session was over and everyone was well out of earshot, and then get him out of there. Until then she had to wait.

For a few moments the group just looked at one another, having a silent conversation about how this would work and who would start them off. Soon enough they were finished, though the wait seemed to take an eternity for the spy.

"Well, scumbag, what d'you have to say for yourself?" the soldier blurted. The medic didn't answer, pretending to still be knocked out. This response got him only a steel-toed boot to the gut, causing him to curl up into a ball and groan in pain.

"Ve know very vell zat you are awake, traitor," the medic told him, "Now I suggest zat you comply with our demands."

The BLU medic smiled lightly. He knew very well what was coming his way. Still, he'd answer any of their questions as best he could, in hopes that they'd let him live. He nodded slowly, letting them know that he'd cooperate.

"Hudda hudda ha ha!" the pyro cheered. They wouldn't have to use extreme force to get the answers to their questions it seemed.

"Yes, that will make this all the easier. Now, where are the intels?" the engineer asked, glaring at the medic from behind his shaded goggles. He didn't trust that this man would cooperate as he said he would: He was a fugitive, after all. He couldn't be trusted.

The medic stayed silent for a moment, thinking of how to word his answer. He ended up saying, semi-truthfully, "I don't know."

"Answer the question, tiny man, or I crush you," the heavy threatened, ramming his fist into his palm. He meant business.

"Honestly, I do not know. I buried zem close to ze campsite. Where and now they are now zat you've blown ze place up, I cannot tell you. So like I said, I don't know," he said defensively. He could see even now that although he was giving them what they wanted things were going to be going downhill very fast.

The heavy seemed to be OK with this answer, but the same couldn't be said for someone else. He stepped up, jabbing their prisoner in the chest rather forcefully with his vintage wooden baseball bat and saying, "Where's the damn intel? I know you're hidin' it somewhere!"

"I swear, I have told you ze truth!" he cried, convulsing in pain. The scout continued with his attack, still unsatisfied with the provided answer, until the soldier took his shovel and whacked the boy across the head with it. The scout promptly crumpled to the floor beside the medic.

"Private, that will be enough! We still have enough questions to ask this maggot, do you understand?" he barked. For a moment he waited for the scout's obedient answer, but never did it come. Looking down at him he found that the boy was out cold. Laughing slightly to himself he muttered, "Maybe I hit the weakling a little too hard. Oh well; pyro, take him to the infirmary. You go too, doc… he may have a concussion."

"Hmph!" the pyro pouted, laying his axe against the wall and grabbing hold of the scout's wrist. As he dragged the boy across the battlements he mumbled something about how he always would up with the short end of the stick. Their medic followed, glad to be out of there. He didn't want to watch what would happen next.

The captured medic looked up from his position on the floor, tears of pain welling in the corners of his eyes. He was used to pain, from both his team and the enemies, but that wasn't what he was thinking of. He knew that his spy was watching the events unfold, and knew that she'd likely be silently crying for him. Knowing that and not being able to do anything about it hurt him more than any baseball bat.

"Zank you, soldier..." he said, expressing his gratitude.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that just yet, maggot. He was just doing it wrong; we still have more questions. And if need be, we have the heavy here to beat the answers out of you. The scout was just too weak for that kind of work," the soldier chuckled in response, folding up his shovel and packing it away.

The medic gulped, looking sideways at the heavy nervously. Of everyone on his old teams the heavies had always instilled a bit of a frightened feeling in him, though he'd always swallowed his feelings to be a good part of the team. One thing he'd learned was that he NEVER wanted to stand in a heavy's way.

Yet there he was, in a heavy's way. And by the looks of things, this hulking heavy wouldn't hesitate to beat his face in should he try anything.

"Now listen up, boy, and answer our next question. The pyro and medic were both taken out by our snipers, but there was one other person with you: the spy. What happened to her?" the engineer growled.

For a moment he thought there was no way he'd give up the spy so easily, not after everything they'd been through. In the end he decided to tell a half-truth, not giving them the whole story but at the same time making his answer believable.

"We tried to flee, ze spy and me... we managed to survive the first few rockets, but zat didn't last for long. Last I remember zere waz an intense ringing in my ears and I was blinded and zere was pain throughout my body... must have nearly hit us..." he recollected, "I do not know how I survived."

They eyed him closely, deciding whether or not to take his explanation as true. Doubt was clear in the engineer's face, while the soldier and heavy appeared to remain neutral.

"He ain't telling the truth," the engineer said blatantly, glancing at the two by his side. "The coward's hiding something yet."

It must have been written all over his face, that he wasn't telling the whole truth. He wasn't exactly used to downright lying like this like the spy was, and by the look on his captors' faces, they knew something was up.

"Where is little spy girl?" the heavy asked gruffly, glaring at the medic. The look in his eyes said that he wouldn't hesitate to attack.

"I... I do not know. I was knocked out before I could see. She could be blown to pieces for all I know, got rest her soul."

"That is unlikely," the soldier interrupted, "We saw no signs of her whatsoever, not so much as an arm or leg. Spies are sneaky like that, even when faced with death. We're sure she's alive. Now tell us, worm, where is she?"

"I DO NOT KNOW!" he screamed desperately.

A few moment of silence followed, though it was now clear that the lot of them knew he wasn't telling the full truth. His sudden outburst of emotion had given him away. Things weren't looking good for him in the least.

The soldier nodded slightly to the waiting heavy, saying simply, "Go ahead. He won't cooperate without a bit of persuasion."

The heavy nodded in reply, saying nothing. A wicked grin crossed his face as he bent down and picked up the medic by the collar of his shirt. Not giving the man a chance to protest he wound up a fist, punching him in the gut. Still dangling in the air he attempted to curl up into a ball, though the heavy prevented that motion. Over and over he landed painful punches on the man using the brute force of his bare hands.

The spy fought to keep silent, barely restraining the gasp that wanted to break free. She wanted to do something, anything to help him, but found that she was rooted to the spot.

"Now, will you tell us where she is?" the soldier asked again when the medic was promptly bruised up. He was giving the man one last chance to come clean before they finished this and disposed of him.

As a small dribble of blood ran from the corner of his mouth he stuck true to his story, shaking his head. He knew what this response would win him, but he didn't care. The spy would do the same for him. "Nien."

The heavy laughed to himself. This man either had no sense or wanted to die. Either way there was a good chance he'd doomed himself, sealing his fate in order to protect the one he loved. The heavy didn't care what his reasoning was: He made a good punching bag.

"Fine then, puny man! Have it your way!" the bulky man laughed heartily, commencing the beating again. Over and over he rammed his fist into the medic's body, eventually migrating from his abdomen to his face.

Multiple times his breath was knocked out of him and he wheezed as he tried to fill his lungs with air. When he finally was able to breathe relatively well he was met with a fist aimed at his face. He took the powerful hit and knew from the tingling on his skin that his nose had started to bleed heavily and was likely broken.

The medic felt his body grow more and more limp with every hit, and eventually the pain left him as his body became almost entirely numb. He could feel what little strength he had left leaving his body, and knew that he couldn't last much longer.

Knowing that he wouldn't be around for too long he glanced in the spy's general direction, wishing her a silent goodbye. Tears ran down his cheeks, not because of the pain he could no longer feel, but because he knew that this was the very last time he would see her. His heart felt ready to break in two even though his body could endure just a bit more, and knew there was nothing he could do to stop it.

The spy saw the look of anguish on his face and knew it was her, his goodbye. She couldn't allow that to happen, though; she'd make his goodbye useless by doing what she'd come here to do. Finally she had the courage to take these goons on, though she feared it was too late.

Hastily she looked around, trying to find something to use as a weapon. She selected something useful soon enough, and knew that things were about to get even uglier. By the time she reached the pyro's discarded axe her cloak had nearly run out. It was now or never.

As she picked up the axe she fully uncloaked in the corner, again becoming visible. Nobody seemed to notice her standing there as they were all busy watching the beating and she took that to her advantage. She had the element of surprise, and that's something she'd need.

The engineer was the only one carrying a gun on him, so she decided that he would be the first to feel the metal of the axe's blade. Without so much as another thought she lunged forward, the axe held steadily above her head.

It was massively heavier than her old lightweight butterfly knife and it took her a moment to adjust to its heaviness as she ran. By the time she realized she was there in the room with them she was already swinging down, a deathly scream escaping her lips.

"Look out engineer!" the soldier called out as he moved to push the man out of the way, but it was too late.

::End of Chapter 3::

Oh, how I do love to leave these off at cliffhangers. And god these are fun to write... I haven't done much with them for a week or two, and I just typed up chapter five recently, and now I want to do more! But I fear I'm at a block in chapter nine... we'll see how I work through that. I won't ruin it for any of you since the plot hasn't been set into motion too much yet.

I've also been working on a series of super-shorts focused on the demoman. They're all less than 1000 words and I'm trying to make them as funny as possible. I'll post those up here eventually, once I get the series done.I like where it's going so far, though, so I'll try to work on them super-hardcore until they're done possibly. I also should get back to work on some other projects...

Uhm... not much else to say. Stay tuned for the next chapter, where we'll see what happens to the engineer and everyone!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

With a sickening squish the axe came down on the engineer's head. Had he been wearing his trusty hard hat the angered attack could have been halted somewhat, but it wasn't placed on his head as it usually was and the axe ploughed effortlessly through his skull.

The others stared at the scene in shock, unable to believe their eyes. It had happened so fast and was so random. Before their eyes the engineer crumpled to the ground, a deathly and gruesome gash in his head, the bloody axe (now which had a few bits of brain matter stuck to the blade) still clutched in the spy's hands.

"What just happen?" the heavy muttered more to himself than anyone. One look to the soldier, who was already without the effects of shock, told him that it was time to fight. This was the last enemy they had to eliminate, and then RED and BLU could go back to being proper rivals.

Already apparently over the engineer's death the heavy weapons guy sprang into action, lunging at the crazed spy. Carelessly he threw the barely-living medic across the room to focus all his efforts on this puny enemy.

The medic landed in the corner with such force that upon hitting the wall and slumping to the floor his chest collapsed, knocking the air from his lungs. There on the floor he lay, trying desperately to get in a breath or two before he suffocated. His efforts were unsuccessful, for the rib that had punctured his lung was preventing any kind of real progress.

The spy saw this and a gasp escaped her lips. She could now tell that her rescue mission would be a total failure. The medic was now clearly on his death bed, and her rescue mission would surely turn into a mission of vengeance.

An anger unlike any she'd ever felt washed over her. The one thing in this war that had really brought her happiness (sure, stealing briefcases and literally stabbing the enemy in the back was fun, but this was different) had been ripped from her with such force.

At this point there was no way she could forgive them and she wouldn't let the medic's death be for nothing. Both RED and BLU would pay for what they'd done, not just to the medic but to the rest of the GREEN team.

As the heavy charged her like a giant lumbering bear she saw the soldier make a move for the fallen engineer's gun. Knowing that if the soldier got hold of the weapon she'd be at an even greater disadvantage she decided to take that possibility out of the picture. Nimbly she dodged the heavy's powerful but uncoordinated first punch, dashing to the gun.

The soldier got to it first, though at the last moment he tripped. He lay on the floor, hand outstretched as he tried to take it in his grasp. The spy frowned as she brought the axe down on his wrist, severing his hand.

As the man screamed in agony and tried to stop the bleeding, his blood pooling on the floor around him, the spy realized something: these three weren't the only ones in the base; they weren't the only ones who were to blame. Surely the others would hear the racket and come to help. If she even wanted to get out of here alive she'd have to try to kill them all, or else they'd kill her. What had she gotten herself into?

Pushing the thought to the back of her mind for now she kicked the shotgun across the floor to the far side of the room, next to the locked supply closet. If she needed to she'd use it later, but she didn't have any extra ammunition so she didn't want to waste it now.

The soldier glared up at her, trying desperately to think of a way to get out of this situation. His nerves hardened by war he was able to keep a relatively clear mind, and he hastily grabbed for his shovel. Pain still consumed him but he knew he had to fight back. Shakily he got to his feet, lunging and swinging the shovel at her.

She wasn't able to dodge in time, the shovel hitting her across the head. As she fell to the ground she reached up to find the tiniest dribble of blood. It didn't bother her of phase her: She took the low ground as an advantage, hacking at the soldier's ankles with the axe. He was able to dodge a few of the swings but most of them hit, and soon the soldier was no longer able to stand on his own.

He wobbled and attempted to keep his balance as she hacked at him one last time, severing both his feet in one swing. Rolling away to avoid being landed on the spy jumped to her feet. Unable to risk him recovering she dealt him one final blow, hacking at his chest and puncturing his heart.

As he bled to death she turned her sights to the heavy, who was standing opposite her with a horrified look on her face. He'd underestimated her and now knew that he was in trouble. He cried out, "Oh, this is bad!"

She nodded, telling him he was right, as she ran toward him, axe at the ready by her side. She swung at him with all the force she could muster but, as big and slow as the heavy was, he managed to block the attack.

While she was in mid-swing he brought his fist down, somehow managing to time it perfectly. Before the axe could dig itself into his flesh his fist made contact with his attacker, the axe dropping harmlessly to the ground.

She screamed in pain, clutching her left hand. His hit had been unexpectedly successful, for when his fist had come down it had hit her hands, breaking on and rendering the axe useless. She needed two hands to swing it effectively, and now was nearly without a weapon.

Knowing that without a weapon she wouldn't be able to survive she scrambled to the corner, picking up the shotgun with her good hand. Steadying it on her left arm she ran toward him again. She wanted to be up close when she fired to deal maximum damage.

The heavy tried to get out of the way but she moved with him. Without any hesitation she pulled the trigger over and over until she heard only a hollow click, the bullets sinking into the man's chest and head. He was dead before he hit the ground, blood spilling from his many new holes.

The spy breathed heavily, tossing the empty shotgun aside. She wanted to take a break, to catch her breath and properly say goodbye to her medic, but she wasn't able to do that just yet. Already she could hear the rest of the teams coming to investigate.

Nervously she reached for her watch, hoping to cloak and hide until they were gone, but quickly found that it wouldn't work. The watch had been on her left wrist and when the heavy had broken her wrist the watch had been smashed along with her bones.

She closed her eyes, trying to think of a way out of this situation as the steps grew louder. After a moment she remembered the pocket watch she'd looted earlier. Hastily she took it from her pocket, fumbling with it until it was open and activated.

The spy fully expected to immediately be cloaked, but much to her dismay that wasn't the case. She stayed fully visible and it appeared that the watch didn't have any effect at all. She began to think that it had just been for show. As the rest of the RED and BLU members burst through the door she was still standing there, a dumbfounded look on her face.

For a few moments the lot of them surveyed the scene, horrified looks on their faces when they set eyes on the four dead bodies. Their eyes soon shifted to the spy and their expressions turned from surprise to anger and hatred.

"Ya killed 'em, didn't ya lass?" the RED demoman growled as he tried to stare her down. She said nothing, trying desperately to devise a plan of escape.

They didn't need the answer: Every one of them knew she'd been the one to murder their teammates. By now she was covered in the blood of her victims, completely giving her away. They merely wanted to give her a chance to say any last words.

"Well Zen comrades," the medic started, reaching into his lab coat and pulling out his ubersaw. It looked like the needle and blade hadn't been cleaned in some time, as blood was still caked on, a trophy to the medic of those he'd defeated. "Shall ve begin?"

They all nodded, advancing on her. It would be difficult for her to fight off seven people at once with a weapon, but with nothing to defend herself with it would be more or less impossible.

The sniper was the first to launch an attack, wanting to finish this himself. He blamed the whole ordeal on himself as he hadn't seen the signs, and wanted to take it upon himself to finally put things right.

Grunting slightly he charged at her, drawing his kukri from the sheath on his back as he ran. Before she could react the blade sliced her flesh, a fairly deep wound across her chest. She screamed in pain as the metal drew her blood, but much to her surprise all wasn't lost.

All at once, as soon as the sniper's blade left her body, she was shrouded in a cloak, hiding her from her enemies. Before her very eyes a figure appeared out of nowhere in exactly the spot she'd been standing, flying backward as if it had been the one who'd been hit. It appeared so flawlessly, this clone of her, that nobody thought otherwise.

Looking at the pocket watch she saw that her cloak was steadily draining, much faster than the other watches. Not used to her cloak draining so quickly she bolted for the door. Luckily it had been left open and she easily escaped. She made her way through the fortress and when she reached the set of small stairs the cloak wore off, emitting a most peculiar sound.

The cloak had lasted only eight seconds, but those precious seconds had saved her skin. Curious, she tried to activate the pocket watch again, but found that it had a lengthy recharge time.

Nervously she looked around to see what the status was. It seemed the entire gang was there with the dead bodies. Instantly she knew what she had to do: she had to get herself a weapon of some sort. Anything would do.

Stealthily she made her way to the main supply room, where she figured they'd have weapons ready for emergency use, slipping through the door without a sound. Only one person beside her was in there: the scout that had met with the soldier's shovel. He was awake now, though still slightly disoriented, and he looked up from his cot at the spy.

"Hey, what you doin' here?" he called out. He jumped from his cot, stumbling somewhat, and made for his baseball bat.

The spy knew that she had to do something about him, and quick. She picked up the first weapon she saw, a revolver, which sat on a nearby shelf. It was a weapon she felt very comfortable with, and next to her knife was her favourite.

She would have liked to use the tried and true method of backstabbing with the scout, make it a relatively quiet death, but knew that the chances of her lining up a shot like that against someone that speedy. The chances of her taking him down with the revolver were greater, but the downside was that it would make more noise, possibly giving her away.

But she had no other choice. The scout was ready to bash her head in and if she didn't at least try to defend herself, he would end up the victor.

With her steady hand she aimed, unloading all six shots at the baseball bat. She didn't bother aiming for the scout, knowing that he'd easily dodge the bullets. By aiming where he wanted to end up, however, she bettered her chances of a hit.

Sure enough his blood splattered across his bat as he reached for it, the bullets stopping his movement. One in his right leg and two in his left he crumpled to the floor just short of his goal. The other three shots had missed.

"You won't get away with what you've all done... not if I can help it. You ruined a perfectly good thing..." she mumbled, as she let the empty shells fall to the floor. Awkwardly (with only one hand) she reloaded the gun with ammunition that was sitting open on the shelf.

She didn't enjoy killing everyone here, but it had to be done if she wanted to exact revenge for the medic's death and wanted to get out of there alive. A sad look in her eyes she delivered just one more shot, this one lethal, to the scout, who was cowering on the floor waiting for what he knew would come.

::End of Chapter 4::

Whoa, the spy wants to exact her some revenge! Where will this end? You'll have to wait and see!

Man, I've gotten totally and utterly addicted to the fandom again. I think the last time it was this bad was when I made my scout costume back at Halloween. And you know what? I'm making more costumes. That's right, I'm getting started on my main goal of having all nine classes in my posession. So far I almost have the spy and sniper costumes done (and the scout of course), and I've started the medic by making a medipack. Things are going good... on top of that I've also been writing fanfictions, so yeah... lots of TF2 lol!

Anyway, not much else to say here. There will be a completely new arc coming soon, just one or two more chapters. It'll focus on new things and reveal more about how I figure the game might work if it was in real life, though it'll still focus on the spy. That's the one thing I'll tell you. So yeah... keep watch for the next chapter, which should come out next Saturday!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The scout lay motionless on the floor, blood spilling from the hole in his chest. He hadn't lasted long. Now the spy was left to deal with her other problems, mainly what she'd do next.

Sure enough, just as she'd predicted, she could again hear footsteps coming her way. Hastily she raided the supply closet, obtaining more ammo, a knife, and a first-aid kit. As the steps grew nearer she bolted from the room and across the hall, taking cover above the small grate in the next room.

Carefully she peeked her head around the corner to see the pyro, medic, and soldier pile into the supply room. They knew something was up now and were trying to not leave anyone on their own. It seemed like they were very preoccupied with the scout's death, for she had a few moments to quickly tend to her wounds.

Quietly as she could she bandaged her broken wrist, making sure it wouldn't move any more than it had to. While she was at it she bandaged up her chest, closing the wound that the sniper had given her. Soon, too soon for comfort, she heard the enemies exit the supply room and start a search. They dispersed, each looking in a different direction but making sure to keep within ear- and eye-shot.

They could have sworn that she was dead, but they had to know for sure. Whether it was her or someone else, they had to find who it was and stop these killings.

The medic found her first and franticly turned to call for his teammates. A fatal mistake. Not only did he and everyone else think she was dead, but he didn't realize she'd armed herself appropriately.

Before he could utter a single word her knife plunged into his back. He toppled forward almost instantly and lay motionless on the ground. Anyone nearby must have heard him fall to the floor, for soon the soldier and pyro were standing in the doorway facing her.

"You won't get away this time, maggot!" the soldier growled. Hastily he loaded his rocket launcher with four fresh rockets and aimed it at the ground beneath her feet. Without hesitation he fired.

She managed to dodge the worst of the attack, retaliating by emptying a clip into his body. The two of them played that deadly game of dodge ball for what seemed like an eternity, neither of them emerging the victor until the soldier finally dropped to the floor, his body riddled with bullets.

This time the spy had absolutely no time to think. The pyro had largely stayed behind the soldier, probably to keep from interfering. Now that he could act without worrying about being struck by the soldier's rockets, he sprang into action.

"Hudda ha! Mmph hmm ha!" he shouted, pulling the trigger on his flamethrower. The room was doused in flames and the spy couldn't escape their wrath in time. Just because she'd burst into flames, however, that didn't mean she was giving up.

She sidestepped the pyro, just barely avoiding the worst of the flames he was still spewing into the room. Quickly she ducked and rolled past him into the larger room, taking the dagger from the medic's back on her way. Before the pyro could react the knife was sticking from his back and he was stumbling forward.

The spy looked around, desperate to put out the fire that was destroying her skin. Unable to think of anything else she ran through the base, out onto the sniper deck. She jumped down, ran a little way farther, and plunged into the water that separated the two properties.

On contact the flames disappeared from her body, replaced by the soothing sensation that the water never failed to bring. Slowly she swam to the pipe that led to the RED team's base. A slight breeze blew through the night air as she emerged from the chilled water, sending shivers up and down her spine.

At the bend in the sewers she found the health kit that RED always seemed to keep hidden there, taking advantage of the burn cream and pain pills it contained. Her skin was by all means red, but not so much that it would hinder her movement entirely. She could live with the pain if she had some help. But she wasn't sure how long she could keep this up if she kept taking damage.

Nevertheless, she had to keep going. She was able to make her way to the main part of the fortress without any worries; if she was correct there were only two enemies left for her to deal with, and then she could properly say goodbye to her medic.

By the time she got to the main hall she knew that she was likely to be in the clear. Not a soul was in sight. Deciding to chance it she made her way across the battlements to the supply room that currently housed her medic's corpse.

Sneakily she snuck in, slipping through the partially open door, to see the demoman standing in the middle of the room. He had a half empty bottle of beer in his hand and had already gotten himself drunk, this time in mourning of his fallen comrades.

It was obvious that he was paranoid that he'd be next on the chopping block, for he'd holed himself up quite nicely: Sticky bombs lined the doorway, a defensive measure against anyone coming in or going out to escape him.

The spy crept up behind him and reached for her knife, quickly realizing that she didn't have it with her. It was still sticking from the pyro's spine. Within a few moments, however, she'd thought up a clever little plan.

Without the drunkard noticing she picked up one of the empty shotgun shells from the floor, throwing it across the room. It bounced off the doorframe and skidded across the floor, hitting the wall on the other side of the door, out in the hall.

The demoman's head shot up and he was, after a short drunken delay, on full alert. In surprise he dropped the bottle, which shattered on impact with the floor, spilling its remaining contents everywhere. Unsure of what had made the noise he went to investigate, and was soon standing in the doorway.

For a moment or two he looked around from the doorway, to no prevail. He was about to give up on his search for whatever had made the noise when he felt a soft tapping on his shoulder. He stiffened, on edge, fearing he'd be about to get a knife in his back.

She did nothing of the sort, instead putting her head over his shoulder. She grinned as she said in a soft and creepy voice, "Peek-a-boo."

Instantaneously she jumped back, hoping her plan had worked. Much to her delight it did, and she couldn't help but smile to herself. The man's drunkenness and nerves got the best of him and as he jumped in surprise he mistakenly triggered the detonation on his sticky bombs. It was a kill in which she hadn't had to do much of anything.

A pained look crossed his face in the split second before the bombs places strategically around the door began to beep, for he knew what was coming. He couldn't do anything else before they went off.

In a brilliant explosion of yellow and white with a reddish hint of the demoman's blood all eight of the bombs went off. It was impossible to see exactly what was going on in the center of the explosion but when the air was again calm and the spy emerged from her area of cover she found that he was nearly unidentifiable; the only thing she could make out was his hand, which had flown across the room.

She grimaced slightly at the sight, for his insides had been scattered by the explosion and were now spread across the floor and walls. The sniper was nowhere in sight and didn't appear to be coming to investigate.

Nodding to herself she decided to leave the Aussie be. He was a good man and had been very kind to her before this whole ordeal. It was obvious that he cared for her somewhat, and she wanted to repay him for his kindness. If she could help it she would avoid killing the man.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you..." she murmured, as she dropped to her knees beside the medic's body. Tears rolled down her cheeks before too long. He'd died to keep her presence a secret so that she may live on, the ultimate sacrifice.

Carefully she took hold of his body, slinging him over her shoulders in a fireman hold. There was one thing she wanted to do before anything else.

The weight of the medic slowed her pace dramatically, but she didn't care. Eventually she reached her destination without trouble, a plot of land just outside the BLU base. Carefully she laid his body on the ground. Taking a shovel she'd looted from one of the soldiers' bodies she began to dig a hole.

It was exhausting work and with every load of dirt she tossed aside she seemed to feel a little emptier. After what seemed like an eternity she finally stopped, the digging of the medic's grave complete. It wasn't anything special, but it was better than nothing. The medic deserved a proper farewell and burial, and this was the best she could do.

Clumsily she climbed from the hole, nodding to herself. Not allowing herself to think about it too much – for she knew it would make the act that much more painful – she grabbed hold of his body.

She attempted to lower the body into the hole carefully, but her knees buckled under the weight of the task and she ended up laying him back on the ground. There was no way she could lower him in without dropping him – she could barely do it on flat ground – and she didn't want to drop him like that.

"Damn it..." she sighed, wiping her forehead. For a moment or two she sat there, thinking of how she would go about doing this, before calling out, "I know you're out there, sniper. Since you're obviously not going to kill me right now, would you mind giving me a hand?"

She heard a soft gasp from the RED battlements where the sniper had been hiding, his sniper rifle trained on her head. At any time he could have killed her and ended this whole ordeal, but had found that he couldn't end her life while she was burying the medic.

He sighed to himself and reluctantly got to his feet, leaning his gun against the wall for when he returned. Slowly he made his way out of the fortress and across the bridge. When he arrived the spy was still sitting calmly next to the medic's body at the edge of the property.

As he approached her he asked, "How did ya know I was there, mate?"

She looked up to him and smiled sadly, "You know when you can feel someone watching you? It was like that."

He couldn't say much of anything other than 'ah' and as he did so he looked around. She'd chosen a good spot for the grave, a patch of land that was rarely walked on. The two stayed there silently for a few moments, unsure of what to say, before the spy broke the silence.

"Could you please help me out with this?"

He nodded, officially offering his services. Together they lowered the body in the hole, the sniper holding the medic's legs and the spy his hands. Just before he arrived at his final resting place she gave him one last kiss, tears pouring from her eyes. She fought to hold back her sobs but was unable to keep her emotions under control.

Once his body was resting in the hole and she collapsed, sobbing deeply and breathing heavily. She struggled to put the dirt back in the hole to bury the man, but eventually completed the task as the sniper stood on the sidelines and watched.

The task was finally complete when she slumped to the ground beside the grave, her head hung as she sobbed softly to herself.

The sniper stood there and watched her, a torn look in his eyes. She was in a time of need, yet she was a very dangerous lady. He didn't want to risk any more lives unnecessarily any time soon, and felt that the only way to ensure that was to get rid of the spy for good. And now that her ritual of death was over, he felt he could do it successfully without his emotions getting in the way.

Slowly he drew his kukri from its sheath and approached the spy. She seemed too enveloped in her sadness to notice, and in no time he was silently standing directly behind her.

Shaking his head slightly at the thought of what he was about to do he dropped to one knee and took hold of the spy with his free hand, pressing the blade against her throat with his other.

"Sorry, mate, but ya caused too much trouble already. I can't afford to leave ya be," he hissed in her ear, pressing the blade against her skin a little more. A small trickle of blood ran down her skin. "Now, I can't kill you like this... I feel I should at least be a tad polite and kill you while you still have a bit of dignity left. Stand up and don't make any moves. I'll even bury you with him if you'd like."

She chuckled, glancing over her shoulder at him. She moved to stand as he'd demanded but at the same time stealthily reached into her coat. Before he could do much more than move to slit her throat (only making the cut a little deeper) her revolver was pressed against his chin. Without hesitation she pulled the trigger.

::End of Chapter 5::

Well, it looks like everyone is dead... whatever is the spy to do now? I know! She can go on a new adventure! You know why? Because this is the segway to the new plot! You still don't know what this plot is, though... guess you'll just have to wait and find out.

Awww, the sniper's heart was his ultimate downfall. I was kinda sad when writing this, and didn't want to kill him off, but knew that I had to in order for the new plot to work.

I really need to get back to work on this. Before next Saturday I have to finish typing out chapter six, and after that I have two more chapters ready to be typed. I haven't written anything new for this one since school let out roughly... I think it's because of my costume fever. But no matter; it'll get done (I hope). If not, there will be a minor hiatus soon. We'll have to wait and see on that... I really don't like having hiatuses like that.

Next chapter will be out next Saturday.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

This was it. Now the sniper was dead with his brains splattered across his surroundings like so many of his own victims and the spy was all alone, the only person left alive in the area. She found herself suddenly filled with a sad feeling, as if she was rather empty. To avenge the medic she'd set out to kill those who'd committed the murder, and now that the deed was done she wasn't sure what to do with herself.

She sighed and looked around. The sun was starting to peek over the mountains, casting a spectacular array of colours across the sky. It was a new day. As the sun continued its incline into the sky the spy sat there mourning the medic's death and everything else that had recently happened.

Finally after some time she got to her feet, ready as she would ever be to move on. One last time she glanced at the grave before heading into the BLU base. She wasn't sure what she'd do now, but she knew she had to get away as soon as possible. If another shipment of mercenaries were to arrive there was no way she'd make it out alive.

Now not bothering with being stealthy, for there was no need when she was all alone, she walked to the supply room attached to the main hall. There she found everything was locked up just as it was in the RED base.

"All this trouble..." she sighed, picking up an axe that was leaning unused against the wall. It was different from the axe she'd used earlier, with barbed wire wrapped dangerously around the blade. It looked like it could do some serious damage.

Paying the difference little attention she took the axe and swung it at the lock on the supply cabinet, hoping to break it apart. Fortunately after a few swings it fell the the floor with a clatter, giving her access to the supplies. From there she pilfered two extra knives and move ammunition, as well as a few health kits for the road.

She assumed that this was all she'd need on her journey. She already had a working (and very tricky) watch and a sapper didn't look like it would come in handy all alone.

Nodding to herself silently she pocketed the supplies, exiting the room. She was about to head off when a thought popped into her head, one last thing she should do before she left. Now that she was all alone she could safely take a peek at the intels – when they'd formed the GREEN team they'd been too preoccupied with everything else to bother.

Taking a sharp right she walked down the wide staircase, making her way down to the intelligence room. Other than the regal-looking desk and chair the room seemed to be completely empty. Computers lined one corner and one wall held a giant window that viewed another conference room.

Just like everything else she'd seen in the BLU fortress everything seemed exactly identical from her fortress aside from the colour. It seemed rather suspicious but she tried to pay it no attention. She had work to do: she wanted to find the briefcases.

It didn't look like there was anywhere in particular where the briefcases could be hidden. Going off the fact that the two bases were exactly the same she decided to check where her old team's secret compartment was.

"Hah! So predicable..." she laughed, as she opened the secret door to find the RED team's two remaining briefcases. They were safe and sound, nearly unscathed by everything they'd been through.

Taking them from their place in the hidden compartment (which was located in the mass computer area) she opened the locks. She pulled the lid open with a small creak, doing the same with the second briefcase before shuffling through the papers.

A look of surprise crossed her face as she sifted through the documents. She hadn't expected to find this at all. Her surprise quickly turned to confusion as she read.

"What is this..." she muttered to herself.

Unable to figure it out she decided to take a peek at the BLU briefcases to see if they would make any more sense. Leaving the briefcases open she hurried to the other team's base. It didn't take her very long to find the stash and soon the two blue briefcases lay open on the desk.

Shaking her head she sighed to herself. Just as everything else was in this godforsaken place, the two teams' plans were exactly the same. She couldn't believe it. She did find something more shocking, however.

Much to her surprise she found that neither team had plans for weapons of mass destruction as they'd assumed. Instead they appeared to be escape plans, a way to get away from this place.

She'd never bothered to look in the briefcases, but surely the original people in this area had. They'd all died out by now, replaced by people such as herself and the ones she'd killed. They'd continued to battle without knowing what they were fighting for.

She had to go with the assumption that the RED team had believed the BLU team to have devastating weapons and had tried to steal the allegedly dangerous plans, and vice versa.

It was so messed up. She couldn't believe that all this had happened to obtain the other team's identical escape plans. She was left in awe at the craziness of it all.

This was all starting to seem more and more peculiar. There was something more to all of this than what was on the surface. Exactly what that was she didn't know, but she was sure that there was something more to all of this.

For some time she contemplated the matter, trying to figure it out and solve the puzzle she was faced with. She came to no viable conclusion, though she could tell it was right on the tip of her tongue.

She could have stayed there a lot longer trying to figure it out, but after some time decided it would be fruitless for the time being. She needed time to let it mull in her brain before she could piece it together. That understood she turned to her next action: she didn't know if more people would be arriving soon or what would be happening, and she wanted to get out of there.

Unsure of where she should go she decided to follow the escape plans, see where they would lead her. She gathered up the papers and folded them, stuffing them in her pockets. She wasn't sure where she'd end up since the last parts of the plans were missing, but it was better than nothing. She was done there.

*************

The spy's movement came to a stop as she sat down, exhausted from hours upon hours of walking. She'd followed the directions on the sheets of paper as best she could and by now she could no longer see the two fortresses. She almost regretted her decision, though; she was now stranded in the middle of nowhere.

She decided that it was high time for her to take a rest, and got as comfy as she could on the barren rocks. It was mid-afternoon and the sun was blazing down on her, but she managed to find shade under one of the few nearby trees.

Sleep came to her easier than she thought, and in almost no time she found herself standing at the door to dreamland. Before she could walk through that door and fully give in to sleep, however, something brought her back to being fully awake.

"Holy doody, what do we have here?" she heard a voice exclaim. The spy raised her head and opened her eyes to see the tip of an arrow only inches away from her face. In surprise she jumped back involuntarily.

"What... what is this?" she managed to ask the man. He kept his weapon trained on her head, "What's going on? Why are you here?"

The sniper chuckled, "You forgot to ask WHO I am. Anyway, mate, I do believe I should be asking you why you're here."

Seeing that this wasn't the time for negotiations she opted to tell him truthfully, "Both sides of the war I was fighting in were... killed. I looked in the intel and am just following the directions to get away from the killer."

"Ah, well then... Mrs. Murderer, I'm glad I got to you in time. That's one journey you don't want to finish, mate," the man nodded. Lowering his weapon he held out a hand to help her off the ground.

She was slightly taken aback that he was assuming she'd been the one to take out RED and BLU, but couldn't complain as it was the truth. Hesitantly she took his hand and rose from the ground.

The two of them stood there for a moment as the spy calmed her nerves somewhat. During those few silent moments she looked the sniper up and down. Like many others he seemed to be from Australia, and he was dressed in typical sniper dress. One thing she found to be odd, however, was the colour of his cloths: instead of the usual RED or BLU, they were a dull grey.

Curious as to what his ties were she asked him, "I've never seen a team that wears grey... which team do you fight for?"

"Oi, I fight for no one. Come 'ere, mate. Let me show you something... it'll explain a lot. And it looks like you need a good meal as well," he offered, smiling kindly.

She nodded as she heard her stomach grumble. She hadn't eaten for some time, nor had she had a drink of water; she'd taken supplies from the two fortresses, but somehow she'd forgotten food and water.

The sniper took the lead, guiding her across the land. For some time longer they walked, until they finally came upon a large grater dug into the ground. He led her to an area to the side of the crater.

Without a word he approached an abnormally large rock. Twice he knocked on the rock, and a few moments later it slid apart. The sniper calmly entered the cavern that had opened up, motioning for the spy to follow.

She did just that and followed him in. He allowed her to take the lead as he lagged behind to shut the door. The spy found herself in a tunnel cut out of the ground. It was very well done and as she walked down the stone stairwell it slowly opened up until she was in a multi-roomed cavern.

"Yo sniper, whatchya got for us today, man?" a scout called from one of the rooms, "I hope it's better than yesterday!"

The sniper stepped up beside her and whispered to the spy, "When I found you I was out hunting for our food. We have food stockpiled here, but I try to get a little something extra for them each day for some variety."

She nodded, only half listening. Instead she gave her attention to the structure of the cavern. It was a work of art, with pillars rising up every few feet to keep the ceiling properly elevated and also to add some aesthetic effect.

"The sniper is back? Oh, I've got a thing or two to say to him..." a soldier grumbled madly, "I'm sick and tired of him leaving his damn jarate around!"

A few more responses popped up before people finally began to show themselves. Soon the spy was surrounded, in the middle of a small group. She saw the sniper, a scout, a soldier, a heavy, and an engineer all crowding around her. They all wore the same shade of grey that the sniper was sporting.

"Little girl not meal," the heavy exclaimed sadly. He'd been looking forward to something other than the usual rice and gruel.

"No, she most definitely isn't a meal. I found her sleeping out in the desert, thought I'd bring her back here. She should be full of stories from what I understand," the sniper explained, nudging the spy in the side softly.

"That's just another mouth to feed, private!"

"And we need to save that dogone food for when we all head out," the engineer added.

"Just hold onto your pants, mates! I think she could be a benefit to the team. She's been trained to get in behind enemy lines and is skilled at what she does. She has to be skilled to have gotten this far."

"Oh yeah, and what would that be, hotshot? I bet I can top it!" the scout challenged, smiling widely.

"What, running scared from the battle scene? What couldn't top that?" the soldier brought up, poking fun at how the scout had come to be there.

"Aw, shuddup!"

The spy hung her head and said softly, "They killed my medic, he was on the other team, and my two good friends. I killed them all and fled. Things seemed suspicious once I was all alone and followed the directions in the briefcases."

The scout's mouth hung open: He couldn't top that.

::End of Chapter 6::

So, everyone at 2Fort is dead. That means that the new plot is not officially in motion! As I said before, I plan to go into a few things that are rarely dealt with, even if it will be briefly. Random gameplay mechanics brought to life and with some sort of explaination that would make a bit of sense. There's a new villain, a new adventure with new game-modes, new weapons, new companions, and all sorts of new stuff. Yessiree bob, I have a lot planned out for this sequel.

That being said, you can already find some of the new things in here. I won't say too much, though... don't want to ruin the surprise, after all.

Things are starting to slow down a tad over here... I think my costumes took priority for a while there, but I'm slowly transitioning back into writing. I've started chapter 9 in rough and am ready to type the two chapters I have in my notebook. So I should have the next chapter up on time next week. Keyword being 'should'.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"You... what? No way, you couldn't have done that!" the scout objected. He hated to be outshone and almost wanted to freak out at this news. He had to admit, though, that the spy was something special if she really had done that.

"How in the sam hell did you manage that? They woulda torn you apart, boy... er, I mean, little lady," the engineer questioned. It was a seemingly impossible feat, and he wanted to know how she'd done it.

She wasn't sure how to explain it. Instead she decided to show them the device that had made it all possible. After a few moments of rummaging around in her pocket her hand emerged, the small golden pocket watch held tightly.

The group passed it around, each person examining it closely. A series of grunts of consideration and thought filled the room and by the time it returned to the spy the murmurs of speculation had died down.

To break the silence that had fallen over them the soldier commented, "Well, private, that's a fancy-lookin' doohicky you have there... I swear I've seen it somewhere before. But what, exactly, does it do?"

The spy smiled, figuring a demonstration was in order. Flicking open the pocket watch to reveal the blue-lighted timer she told them, "All of you go get your most powerful weapons. Go on, I'll wait here."

The lot of them looked confused as they parted to retrieve what had been requested. The sniper, being the only one who had his most powerful weapon with him from his hunting, stayed behind. Within moments the others had returned.

"Now what I want you all to do – all of you – is attack me at the same time," she finished once they'd all arrived.

In confusion they stared at her. The scout voiced, "What the hell? Are you... are you insane or something? This is idiotic!"

"Just trust me on this, will you? Believe me, nothing bad will happen," she assured.

Reluctantly the lot of them prepared their weapons, clicks and other such reloading noises filling the cavern. In just a moment they were ready, all of the weapons trained on the patiently waiting spy.

"Now, all of you fire on the count of three," she started. Quickly she checked to make sure the device was indeed activated before beginning the countdown, "Three... two... one... fire!"

There was a crack of noise and a flash of blinding light as the five weapons opened fire. The soldier fired a solitary rocket at her feet while the scout shot his scattergun. The engineer fired his shotgun at her while the heavy spun up his minigun and fired for only a few seconds. The sniper released an arrow aimed at her head.

All at once the attacks hit her. She cried out in pain, for it was relatively painful, though not nearly as painful as it should have been. It seemed that after a certain point the pain and damage to her body faded, again allowing her to move freely.

She saw the fake corpse crumple to the ground, mutilated from the many attacks as she would have been under normal circumstances. Sneakily she stole away, hiding behind a nearby rock pillar.

She giggled slightly to herself as she watched them become frantic over her dead body. They fully believed it to be the real her. Very soon the effects of the tricky cloaking device wore off, though nobody seemed to hear the distinct decloaking noise over their frantic and worried shouts.

Calmly she stepped out from behind the pillar, walking toward the lot of them. They didn't notice her coming toward them, but a soft tap on the sniper's shoulder quickly fixed that.

He whipped around to face her, a look of pure bewilderment plastered on his face. He gaped, "How did you...? But you're right over...? What?"

The spy laughed aloud, "Exactly! They never saw it coming!"

Relieved that they hadn't actually killed her, the lot of them began to laugh with her, though their laughter was much more nervous than hers. Eventually the chuckles and muffled giggles died down somewhat and the mood calmed down with them.

"Now that I think of it..." the soldier started, thinking hard to complete the idea flowing through his mind, "I think I've seen something like that somewhere in the fields of battle..."

The heavy piped up smartly, the name popping into his head, "Watch is dead ringer!"

"Ah, so that's what it's called," the spy smiled. She now knew the name of the device she was making good use of.

"Yes, I remember now!" the sniper exclaimed, "I knew I'd seen it somewhere before as well. I think it was in that magazine I stole from one of the enemy spies back when I was fighting for BLU. To get an idea of what might be coming my way."

"Oh man, that's just wicked! That could come in real handy," the scout said loudly, sparking a discussion of agreement.

They all nodded in understanding, now knowing the sneaky powers of the spy's pocket watch. Once the noise of discussion died down the spy took the chance to voice some of her own questions.

"Now, you all know how I came to be here and know of I could be of use to whatever it is you're doing, and I'm sure I'd be glad to help with that, but first I need to know: what exactly is it that you guys do?"

"Ah, a good and fair question, mate. Put simply, we're fighters from both RED and BLU who got fed up with the monotonous war life they dumped us in or grew suspicious of the big picture. We're all from different places, but all of us fled and managed to find each other," the sniper began.

"Yeah... it was getting to be a bore. The same thing, day after day! No way I was going to waste my talents there," the scout sighed with a smile.

"Now we watch," the heavy nodded.

"Ain't that a fact! Always we're watching RED and BLU fight, just waiting fer the perfect time to put our plans into action," the engineer grinned.

"We call ourselves the Spectators now, private, and you're more than welcome to join," offered the soldier.

The spy smiled. Although she'd initially been met with hostility, these people were starting to seem friendlier. It was a welcome change to what she'd experienced on the RED team.

"Spectators, eh?" she smiled, "And what exactly is it that you guys do? I mean, I know you watch the happenings of everything around you, but what is this plan that you mentioned?"

They were about to answer when a low and long rumbling sound filled their ears. At first they thought it could be the preparations for battle being made in the pit, but they were quite wrong.

"Sorry, that my stomach. I have not eaten yet," the heavy admitted, blushing in embarrassment just a tiny bit.

"Yes, I'd almost forgotten among all the excitement about that. Spy, why don't you join us in the kitchen for a meal? If I remember correctly, you're mighty hungry as well," the sniper offered, "We can easily continue this there."

The spy nodded, her stomach letting loose a low grumbling at the mention of food. Not needing to be told twice she followed them through the cavern. In no time they reached the makeshift kitchen.

Dangling from the ceiling were two or three extension cords, which drew power from the watchtower centered in the crater. Plugged into these dangling outlets were an old fridge and a small stove, as well as a string of clear Christmas lights in the middle of the room, the only electrical source of light; the other sources of light in the underground complex was a simple series of oil lanterns. Nothing else appeared to be powered by electricity.

In the middle of this rock-walled room was a table, made up of a series of boxes pushed together, at which everyone sat. Rummaging through the ancient-looking fridge the sniper soon handed everyone their meal: sandwiches made from yesterday's leftovers.

Before the light meal could even be placed in front of him the heavy was stuffing his mouth, enjoying every inhaled bite. He moaned in delight, "Me and my sandvich... is good!"

The sniper nodded, holding in a laugh, and preceded to hand everyone their plates. Soon he too was at the table, taking a generous bite of his on sandwich. They all sat there enjoying their food for a few minutes before continuing their previous conversation.

"Now, our plan might seem a little bit... out there, but it's what we're set on doing, private," the soldier started as he swallowed a mouthful of his sandwich.

Before anyone could elaborate the heavy said through a mouthful of bread and cheese and rabbit meat, "We kill stooped little itsy bitsy girl!"

"Not you, of course," the sniper assured upon seeing the spy's reaction, "No, it's someone quite different. We plan to kill that accursed wanker, the dictator known only as the Announcer."

She gaped at the lot of them, unable to believe her ears. She'd heard a lot of crazy and reckless plans in her days with RED, but this was literally unheard of.

"Why would you want to kill her? She never fails to alert the RED team of happenings in the base... except for that one stolen briefcase at my old base..." she questioned, still trying to wrap her head around this bizarre thought.

"She ain't workin' only for the RED team, you moron," the scout corrected rather forcefully, "She tells her BLU followers everything they need to know as well. I know: I was a BLU lackey before I ditched that boring life for this."

Everyone nodded in agreement and the sniper added, "That wanker works for both teams, she does."

It was easy for the spy to figure out how she could say two things at once: a massive soundboard with recordings of her alerts and warnings. But how she could do that same thing for every battle in which RED and BLU fought was a bit more perplexing.

"She must have people to press the buttons for her... endlessly pushing buttons to make it seem like she's everywhere at once..." she concluded.

"That's correct. The location at which she snatches these people is the place she puts in every briefcase, the very place you were heading to," the sniper explained, shuddering slightly in memory, "I found myself there once. She doesn't give you a choice of if you want to join her or not. Luckily I managed to escape, but there are so many others who deserve more."

"So... that feeling of suspicion that came over me back when I opened the briefcases... I was actually correct to feel that way and not just unnecessarily paranoid?"

"Spy girl was correct!" the heavy nodded.

"All this senseless war is a game to that stupid bitch," the scout fumed, remembering the members of his family that had been lost to this endless and pointless war.

"And we are... or at least we were... her playthings. That maggot made us all pawns for her own damn amusement," the soldier cursed, mad that he'd been used like that.

"She controls every aspect of RED and BLU across the globe. Everything bad that's happened to us is because of her and her greedy and insane desires," the sniper concluded.

::End of Chapter 7::

As some of you likely guessed, they are indeed the spectators. But, they're not just sitting around watching stuff... they have a plan. A BIG PLAN.

Things are going to get crazy from here on out. That much I can guarentee. A lot of that new stuff will be coming into play soon.

I realized when reading a bunch of TF2 fanfictions that there weren't enough fics with the announcer in them, and when there were she didn't play a very big roll. I wanted to change that, and this idea came into my head. She could very well be an awesome villain, and I'm going to do my best to convey that.

That's about all for now... next chapter should be up next Saturday, as always :3

TF2 (c) Valve


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The spy thought for a moment, letting the information sink in somewhat. Their explanation made sense that much was for sure. All the pieces fit. Curious as to where this would lead (and wanting her own slice of revenge) she nodded.

A touch of excitement to her voice she told them before taking a bit out of her sandwich, "OK, you got me. Either you're really good at trickery or you're telling the truth, because I see no errors in the way you told the story. Count me in."

A cheer rose up from everyone at the table. They now had a new member on their team, and one whose talents would come in handy no doubt.

As he finished his sandwich the engineer told her, "Some people who follow the directions aren't assigned to play the voice slips as the sniper was. It happens very rarely, but sometimes she'll deem a person too good for that and send them on a different mission. One such person is down in that canyon."

"We plan to apprehend him and question him as to the announcer's whereabouts since he's the latest to have seen her in person and gone back out into the field. She and her bases are usually on the move to ensure their safety, only staying in one spot for two or three months at a time," the sniper explained, "Otherwise I could lead us there."

"He and his team are good; they completely wiped out their RED opponents recently and are waiting for the next batch of contenders," the soldier said.

"That's us!" blurted the heavy.

"Heck yeah we are! And we're going to kick us some major BLU ass!" cheered the scout.

"We will have to scrap our neutrality for a while, private. Hope you don't mind that, but it's necessary to impersonate the team that's really on its way. We're not registered to take their place but we're doing it anyway to stay off the radar as much as possible," the soldier added, frowning to himself slightly. He detested both RED and BLU, but he'd have to put up with it for the sake of their mission.

"Of course," she concurred, "When will we be doing this?"

"We could do it right now if we wanted. Everything's prepared," the sniper told her.

"Then let's get going! The longer we sit here the more time it'll take to get this bastard," she suggested, obviously wanting to get started.

The soldier laughed, "We were going to get you suited up in a grey uniform, but if we're doing this sooner than later I guess that won't be necessary, private."

"One thing, though," the sniper cautioned, "It would be best if you put on your mask, hide your identity. The announcer believes you to be joining her soon, so we can't let the security cameras out there catch you as you are now."

She nodded. She hadn't had to wear her mask for some time an might just be a little out of practice for that reason, but that wouldn't matter; like the ability to ride a bike, these skills would never leave her.

Hastily they finished their meals, wanting to get on with the show. The heavy stayed behind for just a moment or two, sneaking one last sandwich from the fridge. He too soon joined the others.

When he arrived he found the rest of his team changing into the cloths of the people they'd be impersonating. They'd made sure to keep a uniform in each colour to make easier their operations. It didn't take them long to change into their new attire and soon they were ready to head out, dressed in their RED uniforms. The spy already had her own cloths, but she opted to get a new suit over her old tattered one.

As she tied up her hair and put on a new ski mask she thought about the task they were about to attempt. It was a dangerous mission, but she was ready for it. If they could succeed it would bring them that much closer to their ultimate goal.

Once she was ready she nodded, "Gentlemen?"

The lot of them chuckled lightly, surprised at her change of voice. While before she'd sounded like any other person, she now had a strong French accent and spoke in a very proper and refined way. She didn't plan to keep with the act that much, as she wouldn't be talking much at all, but she still wanted to get back into her old habits.

"OK, men! Let's head out!" the soldier riled, starting his march forward. The spy realized that they were following the length of cord that ran to the kitchen and assumed it would lead them to the door. She was right.

After only a few moments they came to what appeared to be a solid rock wall. Following the cord with her eyes she saw that it disappeared into the wall. Making sure to stay in character if only for the practice she asked, "Trap door, I presume?"

"No, it's my ass. Of course it's a trap door!" the scout insulted in a joking manner.

The spy ignored him, waiting for someone to open the door. As the sniper felt along the wall for the hidden handle he instructed them, "It's our goal to kill everyone but the medic. He's the one we're going to be interrogating."

For just a second the spy faltered. It hit close to home, what the sniper had said. However, she didn't allow herself to dwell on the matter. She didn't want to jeopardize her new team's safety.

Finally the sniper found what he was looking for. He grabbed hold of the handle and pulled, revealing an opening. One by one they exited the cavern. They found themselves in a small room dug from the earth. The rich textured dirt surrounded them on three sides, with the fourth wall non-existent. Instead of more dirt there was a gate, shut tight. It would open only when the match started.

The spy walked up to the mesh gate and gazed out at where they would be fighting. In the very center of the arena stood a massive watchtower. Surrounding the base of this tower, on slightly higher ground, was a tall wooden fence. The only way to get to the tower, it seemed, was to either climb the stairs that spiralled up around it or do a balancing act across one of the four pipes that jutted out from it.

"Spy, come here a minute, will you pardner?" the engineer said, summoning her to their group huddle.

"Of course," she replied politely, leaving the view to meet with her teammates one last time before things got crazy.

"So like I said, our target is the medic. You're free to do whatever you like to everyone else," the sniper recapped once she was present, "I'll pick off whoever I can from back here until it gets too dangerous. Engineer, it would be wise to build us a sentry and dispenser, preferably somewhere relatively central. Scout, heavy, soldier... you three just do what you do best. And spy, if at all possible, use that dead ringer of yours near the medic. Do a number on his judgement."

They all nodded, the scout crying excitedly, "YEAH! LET'S DO THIS!"

All at once the loudspeaker in the back left corner crackled loudly. It wasn't long before the announcer's sadistic-tinted voice alerted them of the fast-coming match's start, "Three... two... one... fight to the death!"

As the speaker turned off with a few more sounds of the crackly static the doors trapping them in the small room slid into their holding places in the walls. The six of them were free to do what they had to do.

"Remember, keep the medic alive!" the sniper called as the scout darted outside. Everyone else also went outside to their chosen posts. The spy, however, stayed back for a moment or two. Using her new disguise kit she hid her identity as a spy. Within moments she was disguised as a friendly pyro. Normally this was a very risky thing to do, but in this case she had a plan.

"Hudda hudda ha!" she mumbled to herself in her best pyro voice, as she ran out into the open. Thinking like the one she was impersonating she ran along the massively tall fence. All at once the fence stopped to give way to a makeshift bridge that led to one of the four supporting pipes of the watchtower, literally a log leaned against the pipe.

It looked like a less-than-safe way to get to the other side, assuming there was a log on the other side as well, but she decided to go for it. For the majority of the way she'd have the cover of the trees if she took this path.

Luckily there was a log on the other side, but she chose not to take it just yet, instead opting to search for enemies from her high vantage point. She spotted a BLU sniper scanning the arena from behind his team's fence and a soldier spamming rockets from atop the roof of the tower. On the ground she thought she saw the glimmer of a cloaked spy and duly noted it.

Seeing no other enemies she hurried down the other side, slinking closer and closer to the BLU team's dugout. Her target, with his eye glued to the scope of his sniper rifle, didn't see her coming.

Surely her team would be having trouble moving freely with him on the prowl. With one swift movement her knife tasted his back. He screamed in pain as he took his last breath but nobody heard it as her hand was over his mouth and muffled the sound.

Instantly she was without disguise and out in the open. Thinking quickly she dragged the dead sniper aside, tucking him away in his team's dugout where nobody would find him. While she was there she used her disguise kit once more to steal his identity.

Looking to the watchtower she saw that the soldier was still up there. Remembering her team's engineer's job, she decided to play a trick on the man.

"Oi, mate! Engineer in there!" she called out, pointing to the watchtower, in hopes he'd hear her.

Sure enough he turned and saw where she was pointing. He said loudly so she could hear, "Ah, so that's why they haven't died yet! Damn engineers... thanks, private!"

He jumped down onto the supporting pipe, hastily marching into the tower room. For a second she heard nothing and thought her dirty little trick had failed, but soon enough got confirmation of her success.

The BLU soldier's screams rang through the air as the strategically placed sentry's bullets ripped through his flesh. To finish him off the sentry deployed its four rockets. He wasn't able to dodge in time.

The spy fought to hold back a snicker. After a moment she began to feel odd, a tingling sensation creeping across her body. She was beginning to feel better, as if her previously unhealed wounds were finally getting their proper treatment.

"Vhat a shame... ze soldier vas killed. I vonder vhat got into him?" the enemy medic muttered, "Now it's just us, ze pyro, ze spy und ze demoman. But ve vill prevail; failure is not an option!"

The spy's body went rigid at the sound of his voice and she instantly realized that the tingling sensation was the beam of healing goodness coming from his medigun.

Turning around she saw that he was gazing absent-mindedly at the base of the tower, where the RED soldier and scout were ganging up on the demoman. It wasn't long before he too fell, a rocket tearing him to pieces.

"Make zat four ov us. Sniper, one question: zat vas an easy shot. Vhy didn't you get at least one ov zem?"

The spy froze. He was onto her, and she knew it. She would have taken this opportunity to backstab him but found that two things were preventing that: his likeliness of the one she'd loved and her mission.

::End chapter 8::

Yay, finally... another chapter! I'm taking this one off hiatus until I run out of chapters again/go on vacation, so there'll be another chapter every week again for a while.

I think this new development could cause some problems with the spy... but you'll have to wait to find out how it affects her

TF2 (c) Valve


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"I... well, you see..." she mumbled, trying to think up a way out of this situation.

"Ah, no need to vorry, sniper. No need to hide zat you are hurt, not vhen you are viz ze doctor. I probably couldn't hit anyone eizer if mien hands vere zat shaky," he chuckled, finishing his healing session.

She nodded to herself, thankful for the misunderstanding.

"Hudda ha!" she heard a pyro call out, as he came closer. The medic turned to greet him, knowing he'd need to be patched up.

The pyro arrived and gratefully received his treatment. He was about to head off again when he noticed the spy standing there, still disguised as their sniper and still not shooting anyone.

"Hmm..." he mumbled. The spy had just enough time to take out her dead ringer before he let loose a torrent of flames in her direction.

As soon as she caught fire the pocket watch was activated, dousing the flames and creating a fake death. As she ran away she saw the pyro give a thumbs up, assuring the doctor that the threat was gone.

"That was too close..." she muttered to herself, as she hurried across the nearest pipe (the one right outside the BLU base) to the tower. It was time for her to lay low and let the others do their work so she could reappear and mess with their minds.

Soon she was at the other end of the pipe, making her way up the steps. Just as she entered the watchtower her cloaking effect wore off, and she was again visible. She didn't bother disguising as another enemy for now, wanting to take a rest before going back out. As she took a seat by the engineer's dispenser to get the supplies to patch herself up somewhat her team's sniper emerged from the opposite staircase.

At first he seemed to take no notice of her sitting there, instead climbing onto one of the tables and looking out the window. Before his eyes he saw the soldier rocket jump from one end of the canyon to the other, planning to take out the pyro, who was now hanging around the medic.

His jump horribly miscalculated, he landed a few yards in front of the pair instead of where he'd aimed behind them. The pyro's natural reaction was to defend himself, which he did by showering the man in flame.

"Fire, fire, fire!" he screamed. Desperately he searched for a way to put out the fire, spotting a small pond at the base of the tower. Knowing that another rocket jump would likely spell doom for him, he ran franticly to the glistening water.

The sniper sighed to himself as he watched his teammate fall to the ground just short of the pond. They'd lost one of their own, a regrettable situation, though fair as they'd picked off a few of their enemies. They couldn't win without losing at least a little.

The battle was starting to drag on, each team trying their hardest to stay alive. The one watching over their duel must have thought it to be getting boring, for after some time they activated a secondary objective: capturing the central and only control point, located in the watchtower.

"Looks like all we have to do now is stay up here to win this one, and then we can corner the medic while he's in submission," the sniper said, keeping his eyes trained on the battlefield below.

She and the sniper, along with the engineer's toys, were still watching the battle rage on from the safety of the tower.

"Yeah, looks that way..." the spy muttered softly, staring through the hole in the roof at the sky.

Slowly she shifted her gaze from the calmness of the sky across the room to the sniper, who was almost unnaturally calm in the midst of a fight in which he and his teammates could easily lose their lives.

He stood there peering out the window, moving not a muscle. His level of pure concentration blew her away. He reminded her so much of the sniper back at 2fort, never losing focus on what had to be done even if it wasn't a desirable act.

Slowly and trying to be as inconspicuous as possible she rose from her seat, making her way to the man. Cautiously, unsure of the cause of her actions, she reached out to him.

"Sniper?" she whispered, her voice barely audible. He must have not heard her, for she received no reaction. Nervously she hesitated, thinking. After a moment she realized what it was she was feeling.

Grief. She'd been so much with her medic. That pain was still with her, just as it would always be, and being forced to put those feelings away so soon were taking their toll on her. She'd played all that off in the presence of her new comrades, but the sight of their first target had brought those feelings rushing back to her.

Now sure that she had to get some of this stuff off her chest she moved to tap him on the shoulder. Before she could so much as lay a fingertip on him, however, her plan was foiled. Bounding into the single elevated room was the engineer, making his entrance from the area opposite them.

"Whoowee! Did y'all see that? Some crazy fightin' goin' on down there, wouldn't ya say?" he announced, as he plopped down on a spare chair beside his sentry.

The sudden movement and noise catching him off-guard the sniper spun around to see who was disturbing his peace. In mid-spin he caught sight of the spy, who was still standing a foot or so behind him, and became yet more startled.

Losing his balance in mid-turn he toppled off the edge of the table. At the last moment the spy saw what was going to happen and made a move to back away, though by that time it was too late. Letting out a sharp cry the sniper fell forward, right onto the spy. Both fell to the ground, the spy feeling a sharp pain shoot through her body on contact with the floor and the sniper.

The sniper and spy were on the ground in seconds, the spy pinned down and unable to move out from under him. For just a few short seconds they stared at each other. The spy could feel his breath on her face, and he hers.

Almost immediately he jumped up, an embarrassed look on his face. Nervously he held out a hand to help the spy up. "Sorry 'bout that, mate... lost my footing it seems..."

"No, it's ok, really," she laughed, taking his hand. Soon she too was back on her feet. The two of them silently cursed the engineer, who was chuckling at the mishap in the background.

His laughter was short-lived, though. As the sniper and spy dusted themselves off a slender blue-clad figure slunk into the room unnoticed. Once she was finished cleaning herself off the spy straightened up, catching the figure's movements from the corner of her eye.

He must have known he'd been discovered, for his actions quickly grew a bit more frantic and a bit less calculated. The spy shoved the sniper out of the way and began running toward the engineer haphazardly, wanting to prevent what she knew was slated to happen, "Watch your back, engineer!"

By the time she reached him he'd already fallen, a deadly knife wound in his back dripping blood. His killer was talented; the engineer's sentry had started to lock onto the enemy but it too had been taken care of with the swift placement of an electro-sapper, and then just to be safe the dispenser had met the same fate.

With the engineer dead they had no way of safely removing the sappers. Anything they would try to save the sentry would only make matters more difficult. It was a no-win situation.

Hearing a chuckle rise from the other end of room the spy placed the engineer's head down on the ground carefully. The man was gloating after killing the engineer and breaking his toys, wanting to show he was one step above those he'd terrorized.

"Why you...!" she started, standing up and drawing her revolver. As the enemy began to flee she shot at him, hoping to get at least one hit. He cloaked, but as he did so two or three small bursts of blood erupted from his arms and torso.

He managed to get away, but in a badly injured state. Once he was gone they again had control of the watchtower. His being there had brought a stop to their control, but now that he was gone again it wasn't long before the announcer's voice told the opposing team, "You have failed. You were always a disappointment."

That was it. They'd officially won the match, not by killing off the other team but by capturing the territory. Now it was time to head out and claim their prize: the one who could give them the valuable information they needed.

Putting on the disguise of a friendly soldier to mess with their minds she followed the sniper silently out of the watchtower. By the time they cornered the medic the heavy had already blown away his enemy counterpart and the scout had beaten the pyro and spy to death.

"Vell, it seems zat I have finally been defeated. Zere is no vay I can take on all ov you at once," the medic sighed, hanging his head. When the spy and sniper arrived he looked up, an expression of utter confusion crossing his face at the sight of the disguised spy.

"Heh! Little healing man know what's coming?" the heavy laughed.

As if he hadn't heard the question at all he asked the spy, "I thought zat you vere dead... you burned to death right in front ov me..."

She took off her mask, revealing that she wasn't the soldier but the spy instead. His look of confusion stayed, for he'd seen her die as well, and softly repeated his previous statement exactly as he wracked his brain for an explanation.

Before she could answer properly the scout came running up the hill from the bush, stopping where they'd cornered the medic against the fence just outside the BLU dugout.

"Yo, I found this frickin' sweet gun on that other guy's body. I'd keep it fer myself, but it's too fancy for my taste. You want it, spy?" the scout offered, holding out a shiny silver gun for her. As she took it he looked to the medic, "Sucker."

The spy hesitantly took the gun. It was a beautiful piece of machinery, polished silver and engraved with the picture of a lovely-looking lady. It felt heavy in her hands, and she got the notion that it was a powerful weapon. Nodding in thanks she stuffed it in her suit for later use. She didn't want to hold this 'meeting' up.

"So, vhen are you going to kill me, zen? Vaiting for me to beg for mein life, is zat it? Vell, zat von't happen any time soon. Or are you just taking your time?"

"Neither. We're going to ask you some questions, mate, and you'd best answer them truthfully. We've gone through some trouble to track you down and isolate you... we wouldn't want all that work to go to waste," the sniper told him, a threatening undertone to his voice.

The medic looked between the lot of them, unsure of what he should do. In the end, to save his own life, he decided to cooperate as best he could.

A tear came to the spy's eye, and although she tried to hide her emotions like any good spy should be able to do, she found that she was unable to keep a watchful eye on the scene. It looked almost identical to events past, only this time with a different cast ganging up on the medic. She couldn't help but remember what she'd seen back at 2fort in vivid detail.

Nodding to the sniper she took her leave. He nodded in understanding. She still needed time to heal, and this would only serve to rip open her wounds if things didn't go as they wanted.

::End chapter 9::

This seems slightly reminicent of something... oh well. I had to kill off a character otherwise it would just get too crowded, and backstabbing the engineer was the best thing I could come up with at the time. Anyway, they've captured the medic... where will it all lead? Don't worry, I've got it all planned out.

Do I spy some sniper/spy in there? Do you? That's up for you to decide. Whether it's right or wrong only time will tell, but there are some subtle hints in here as to who it'll be. Yes, I have decided to put a romance factor in here, though it'll only play a small part as opposed to the previous fanfiction. Anyway, you won't have long to wait to find out since I'm uploading the next chapter pretty quick here!

TF2 (c) Valve


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

In the distance the spy could hear the interrogation happening, but refused to let herself look. It brought back too many unpleasant memories. Trying to push what they might be doing to the back of her mind she took a seat on a nearby log, gazing absent-mindedly at the calm blue sky. Sadly she took off her mask, holding it in her hands for no reason other than to keep herself busy with something, however small and trivial it was.

Not too long had passed, maybe five minutes, before something snapped her out of her deep state of thought. The boy said soberly as he took a seat beside her on the log, "Yo, what's up?"

She tried to answer casually, but found that she couldn't. Her emotions overpowering her logic and finally breaking free she burst, "He was looking at me, smiling as they killed him! I couldn't stay there, not when he looks so much like the one I loved... I couldn't even think of hurting him even though he's the enemy, much less bear to see him tortured!"

Tears streamed from her eyes, making her cheeks mini-rivers, her emotions spilling out after being kept at bay since the event. She'd held it back for so long, but now found that she couldn't stop it happening.

"I know what you mean..." he said softly, hanging his head.

"HOW COULD YOU?"

"This is a war, and terrible things happen. My brother and sister were killed in the line of duty, tortured for information as your medic was. These are all I have left of them... one from each," he admitted sadly, taking hold of the two dog tags he wore constantly.

Unsure of what to say the spy simply muttered, "I... I'm sorry. I didn't know, scout..."

"It's ok, not many people do. But you know what? Even though they're dead, they're not gone. In memory and in my actions they're still here, just like how your medic's with you," he smiled, trying to cheer her up at least a little bit. He didn't like to see her like this, especially not after such a big victory.

"Yeah, I guess..." she responded, looking from him to the ground in front of her.

"No, he's definitely still with you," he assured her, "Now I figure we should wipe those tears up... sounds like they're just about done over there."

Carefully he reached up and gently wiped the tears from her cheeks, a kind and understanding look in his eyes. She sniffed a few times before regaining her usual control. Nodding, the scout jumped up, offering her a hand.

She took it, rising from her place on the log with his help. Before leaving she put her mask back on, knowing that outside of this small treed area were cameras that could easily catch her identity on film. Once she was ready they headed off, wanting to hear the information that had been obtained. With the scout's help she now felt a bit better, and felt that she could at least be in the medic's presence without breaking down again.

Before long they reached the others, and confused looks crossed both of their faces. The medic was perfectly fine, as if he hadn't been subjected to the harsh methods of interrogation at all. Even more puzzling was the fact that he was talking and laughing with his captors like he'd known them for years and was on completely perfect terms with them.

"Uh... hey? Uhm... what's going on here, guys?" the scout asked, his mouth hanging open slightly.

"Ah, there you are, scout, spy. You'll never believe what this old bloke had to say!" the sniper smiled as they approached.

The spy cocked her head, still not quite understanding. The medic must have won them over somehow. Having never seen that happen among enemies, she wanted to know how he'd done it.

"Zey said zat zey vanted invormation on ze announcer, and vhat zey vanted to know isn't easily explained," the medic told them, "So instead I hovered to lead zem to vhere I vent before being reassigned here."

"So... we're going to be traveling and fighting together?" the spy gaped. She knew that doing that would bring back memories both bad and good on a regular basis and while she wanted to remember the good times, she didn't want to live in the past.

"I know it's not ideal for you right now, but it's the only way to advance," sniper nodded.

She merely hung her head. No amount of arguing would change this that much she could see.

"If you feel like staying separate from them I don't blame you," the scout muttered just loud enough for her to hear, "I'll keep you company if you choose that route. Besides, he seems kinda... off. He's being too casual about this or something."

"Thanks... I'd appreciate that, at least for the first little while," she agreed. She then turned her head and asked the rest of them, "And how exactly are we going to get to wherever it is we're going?"

"Ve vill get zere by helicopter."

************

"OK, so we don't mean to harm them. We only have to get them off safely and get on before it takes off again. We don't want to draw any more attention to ourselves than we already have. You lot got that?" the sniper instructed.

"Easy as cake!" the scout grinned confidently.

"Sounds simple enough," the spy said, looking to the skies. They were lying in wait for the RED helicopter to arrive. Since this match had taken place rather unexpectedly under not-so-normal conditions the incoming RED team hadn't been informed of the events and was still on their way.

They didn't have long to wait. Soon enough they could hear the distinct sound of the approaching aircraft.

Secretly they hid in the shadows, making sure to not be seen until the perfect moment. After what looked to be a rather bumpy landing they saw the doors of the chopper open, and the RED team hired for the job in this arena started to pile out.

On the sniper's signal their assault began. Jumping from the cover of the trees everyone but the spy showed themselves, running at the transport ship. She would be their backup, firing her new toy only if they were attacked or if the pilot didn't follow their demands.

"Everyone, off ov ze helicopter. Iv you cooperate nobody vill be harmed!" the medic announced. With his ubersaw held at the ready he herded the small group of people away from the craft.

It was clear that being thrown into this kind of situation made them nervous. They hadn't been trained to deal with this kind of thing and by the looks of it were rather new to this war in the first place; those factors didn't combine exceptionally well.

"Don't worry, we won't harm you," the sniper assured, as he carefully helped the unsuspecting people off the helicopter.

There were still two people remaining on the helicopter when the pilot decided he wasn't going to stand for this. His orders were to drop off this team and then head back to the main base, and he wasn't about to let these rogues stop him from fulfilling his orders.

Hastily he turned on the machine, the blades promptly beginning to spin. Whether these last two were off his ship when he took off or not, he was getting out of there.

"Um, guys?" the scout started. Pointing a finger to the helicopter he pointed out the obvious, "He's trying to get away... shouldn't we stop him?"

"Little man not get away so easily!" the heavy said. As he lumbered forward the helicopter doors began to close. He prevented this, knowing it would hinder their chances of getting out of there, jumping in at the last possible moment and kicking the door off.

The two left inside quickly shifted into defence mode at the sight of the heavy charging toward them. As soon as he was in the helicopter the newbie demoman took hold of a nearby bottle, smashing it over the larger man's head.

"C'mon lad, let's be off!" he said, grabbing hold of his pyro companion's arm. The two of them climbed over the heavy as he tried to shake off the dazed state they had given him, hopping onto the ground and running to safety.

"Damn wankers... we can't let that chopper get away!" the sniper yelled above the roar of the blades. By now the aircraft was hovering a foot or so off the ground, and wasn't going to stop rising any time soon. Time was fast running out for them to do something. "Spy, go ahead! This may be our only chance...!"

She nodded, taking careful aim from her hidden spot amongst the trees. She was going for his arm or a non-vital part of his torso, wanting to hurt him and hinder his movements but not kill him. Her aim was steady, the shot perfectly lined up. Knowing that this golden opportunity would last only a short time she pulled the trigger as soon as she was sure of the shot.

Her finger pulled back on the trigger, though immediately wished she hadn't. Out of nowhere the newly arrived pyro and demoman appeared, fleeing the scene of the crime. At the perfectly inopportune moment they burst into the foliage, bumping into her as they made their escape.

"Damn it!" she muttered, lowering the gun. The crack had already sounded and the yelps coming from the clearing and sound of shattering glass told her that she'd hit her target. Unsure of what damage she'd really done she ventured out from her hiding place, making her way toward her companions.

"Hurry, everyone on before it rises too high and we can't get out of here!" the sniper called out, ushering his team onto the chopper. He knew that it wouldn't be unlike the announcer to blatantly abandon them all there and focus on other things. The spy barely made it, taking a leap of faith. For a split second she feared she wouldn't make it, for she was falling just short of her goal, but the arm of the scout darted out to grab onto her and pull her up just in time.

"That was a close one... you almost didn't make it, idiot," he smiled, pulling her up with a bit of a struggle. In just a moment she and the scout were each sitting in one of the seats, panting.

For a moment they all just sat there, getting used to the rockiness of the ride. They were careful to steer clear of the right side of the helicopter, for falling out of the permanently open door would most certainly mean death from this height. As time went on the ride grew bumpier and bumpier.

Growing curious as to why it was growing bumpier by the minute and wanting to get them going the right way, the medic got up to give the pilot their directions.

"Alzough you attempted to take off like ze coward zat ve all know you are, ve are grateful zat ve now have your cooperation," the medic said to the man, who was dressed in a very official-looking black suit.

For a moment he stood there, waiting for a response but receiving not a single sign or gesture to show the man was listening to him.

"And ov course, ve do have your cooperation. Ozervise ve may have to inflict some serious... pain on you."

Still no response.

"Vhy you little..." he started, climbing fully into the front seat. He was about to slap the man across the face when he noticed something rather troublesome.

Although the spy's shot had hit its target, it had done a little more than render the man's arm useless. Much to the medic's dismay it had rendered his entire body useless, the bullet straying off-course and heading through the side of his head.

"Oh, no..." the medic mumbled in a fluster, "Shnell! Ve need someone who can fly zis zing!"

::End of chapter 10::

Yay, double digits! I'm on a roll! Hahaha!

So... yeah. How many of you figured out the romance portion? The scout may ba a force o' nature, but everyone has a story. On the inside he's a softy. He's going to play a bigger role that I thought (I'm writing chapter 12 out on paper right now and some crazy crap goes down hur hur). Anyway, spy/scout. Yup.

Writing this chapter was fun. Anyway, tune in next week (or possibly - and I mean a very slim chance of possibly - later today) for the continuation! I like where they're going and there'll be revelations and craziness and all that awesome stuff.

TF2 (c) Valve


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Panic overtook most of them for a short time. The pilot was dead, having bled out quite quickly, and they were in the air. If they didn't do something fast the aircraft would surely lose control and crash, killing them all.

"Don't worry, mates, I've dabbled in this kind of thing before," the sniper said, pushing past them from the back of the helicopter. He hadn't even been in a pilot's seat for a good many years, but before getting involved in this war he'd had a strong passion for anything that could fly.

Compared to what he'd learned and practiced back in the day this helicopter was tricky to get the hang of. There were more buttons and switches as the technology since then had advanced quite a lot, but it still had the basics that he knew. Luckily it was already up in the air (otherwise he mightn't have known which buttons to push and switches to flick) and he had only to steer them in the right direction.

Of course, it was a little more complicated than just steering the thing, but everything else was fairly minor in comparison. He soon got a feel for the airborne vehicle. It would still be a rather bumpy ride, but they were good to go.

"Alright then, doc, where are you leading us?"

************

Just as he'd predicted it had been a bumpy trip, but they were finally nearing their destination. They'd been traveling for some time, though the terrain had stayed relatively the same. Now they found themselves at another dug out area, though this one didn't go as far down as the one with the watchtower had.

From up in the air they surveyed the scene. Buildings were scattered all over the place, some rising above ground level. Weaving around these buildings was a single railroad. It led from just outside one building all the way to what they assumed was the other team's base, where it stopped at what looked to be a hatch built into the ground.

"Ve are here! Please, land ze helicopter over zere, by zat far blue building. Ve'll have to blend in, so ve should start wiz everyone else," the medic instructed.

The sniper smiled nervously, "I... well, I'm afraid I don't know how to land this thing."

"I zought zat you said you know how to fly zese zings!"

"And I do know how to fly them... taking off and landing is a different story," he said, "I can get us close, but we'll have to jump out and let it crash. There should be plenty of chutes back there. I suggest you all get suited up."

The lot of them looked at each other nervously before each taking a parachute from the walls. Luckily the helicopter was well-equipped and in the end still had one remaining.

"Vhy don't you just bring it closer zan zat so ve can just hop out?"

"No, that wouldn't work, mate," the sniper pilot started, "May be easier for you to get out, but having the copter crash that close would only raise suspicions. If it goes down over the hills there nobody will pay it any difference."

"Ah, zat is indeed true. Vell zen, ve may as vell go ahead and do zis."

They all nodded, preparing themselves for the jump. They'd been taught how to do this when they'd enlisted, just in case, so none of them needed to relearn the skill. All they had to do was wait for the sniper to bring the aircraft a safe distance from the ground.

"Okay, we're good to go. I've set her on autopilot, so she should keep going. She'll be plenty distance away when she crashes," the sniper announced once they were just high enough. He rose from his seat and quickly suited up in the parachute his comrades had set aside for him.

"Vell, here ve go..."

Not wanting to land too far away they decided to jump as soon as possible. They soon sailed through the air, each pulling their strings as soon as teh chopper was far enough away that their chutes wouldn't get caught in its blades.

After a few moments of falling in style they found themselves back on solid ground. Each of them struggled to get out from under their parachute houses and unstrapped.

"I vill be right back," the medic said once everyone was ready to get started.

"Healy man not going to run away, is he?" heavy growled, eyeing the man suspiciously.

"No, ov course not. I am ze only one in blue attire, so I vill go to get you all new clothes. Ve vill draw less attention to ourselves zat vay."

"I'll go with him to make sure he doesn't try anything," the spy offered, "I have access to a blue suit through my disguise kit."

"But spy..." the scout started, looking to her with a concerned look in his eyes. He knew how she felt and that doing this would likely only serve to hurt her.

"Don't worry, scout. I'll live," she smiled. It did pain her that she'd have to be alone with the man that so resembled her love, but it was necessary to make sure he didn't do anything to abandon them or screw them over.

"Alright, then. Don't take too long now, ya hear?" the sniper said. He wanted to get going as soon as possible.

"You guys follow us until ve get into plain sight. Keep hidden until we come to find you," the medic instructed.

The spy nodded, disguising herself as a BLU spy. With a little wave she and the medic hopped down onto an overhanging piece of rock. After a few more jumps they were at the bottom of the canyon. Quickly as to not be spotted by the RED team they ducked into the building from which they'd be heading out.

"So..." the spy started as they found the supply room and started to gather some supplies for their friends, "Why did you get caught up in this whole thing, anyway?"

Without them talking the mood would soon turn awkward. And he was, after all, a new member of their team, so it was only logical to know a bit about him if they wanted to function as a team in the near future.

"Vell, I initially came here to get access to... test subjects. Viz all zose dead bodies lying around, it vould be a vaste not to. And, of course, ze occasional live subject," he answered, smiling at the memories of past experiments.

"Test subjects?" she frowned as she grabbed hold of a blue long-sleeved shirt, "What exactly do you mean by that? What did you do with them?"

"Bodies, mien dear... bodies both dead und alive. Zey restricted my research to zat vich heals, for obvious reasons, but every once in a while I snuck in an experiment for mien own pleasure."

The spy grimaced as she thought of the different things he could've done to those corpses and live people. Without another word she left the conversation alone, not wanting to know any more on the subject.

"Alright, let's go," she said once she had her share of clothes ready for her teammates, "We'll stick out like sore thumbs if we stay here much longer like this."

"Yes, of course. Ready when you are," he agreed, quickly grabbing a few more things before following her away. Before they could really get anywhere he saw the spy struggling with teh door and pointed out, "Zey only open from ze outside. Ve vill have to vait until ze round starts to get back to our comrades."

As if on cue, the voice of the announcer announced, "Mission begins in thirty seconds."

It wasn't a long waiting time and they soon were on their way. Hiding right where they'd left them was the rest of their team, completely unscathed by the enemies, who were no doubt preparing for the battle ahead.

Throwing the pile of clothes down on the ground for them to sort out the spy told them, "Hurry up and get these on... the match has started, and we want to get this done as quickly as possible and with as few complications as we can."

Following her example the medic dumped his pile of clothes beside hers. Handing everyone a piece of headgear he added, "Vear zese as vell. She vill no doubt be searching for us, and zey vill protect our identities."

They all nodded, getting into their new uniforms and hiding their identities as fast as they could to avoid any unneeded trouble. It wasn't long before they were all suited up and ready to go.

"Now, ve vill have to push ze cart from here to ze ozer base in order to advance farzer," the medic explained, "Ze RED team, of course, vill be trying to prevent zat. Ve vill have to give it our all."

They nodded. There was nothing left to do but get started on their mission. As they all headed down the rocky path to where the cart was sitting just outside the BLU base they looked between each other, unsure of exactly what they would encounter.

When they arrived there was no one else in sight from neither RED nor BLU. It almost seemed like they were alone in the canyon, but they knew from the looks of the object they'd be escorting that this wouldn't last for long.

It was a bomb, very obviously strapped together in a hap-hazard manner but also very obviously working. Wires that connected various parts were visible and a ticking alarm clock attached to the main area of the thing. The bomb and its various parts were actually far too big for the little cart to handle, as the sides of the wooden railcar had cracked to give way to the bomb.

"Cart not push self!" the heavy pointed out, getting into a good position to move the large and dangerous payload forward.

Everyone else agreed, each of them doing their part to push the cart. Soon they were on their way, and had a good start with five people pitching in. Their progress was still somewhat slow as they remained extremely cautious. The medic was the only one who'd been to this location before so only he knew the terrain, and they just knew they weren't alone in this canyon.

Their suspicions were confirmed before too long. They first met their new RED enemies when they reached the concrete tunnel. There, smack dab in the middle of the tunnel was a lone level three sentry. As they turned the corner it locked onto them, dispensing its bullets and rockets in their direction.

Thinking on her feet the spy quickly ducked out of the tunnel, disguising as an enemy engineer as soon as she was out of sight. Knowing that traveling with the rest of the team would serve only to give her away she decided to go it alone for the time being.

Sneakily she traveled a different path, though still in the same direction as her friends, weaving to avoid the many jagged towering rock pillars. Soon enough she found herself at the other end of the tunnel, standing atop it. Although she was ready to sap the sentry in her teams way, however, she fast realized the sentry was the least of their problems.

Lying in wait around the tunnel exit, completely out of the eyesight of her companions, was what looked to be the whole of the RED team. They grinned as they heard the cart inch forward and the sentry attack. It was clear that they had something planned.

They were going to ambush the BLU team as soon as the cart emerged from the tunnel – the sentry was merely a distraction and way to pick them off early. To run back to tell her friends of what awaited them would take too long; she had to do something here and now if she wanted them to live.

::End Chapter 11::

They've gotten into the proper attire and are on their way, but something awaits them up ahead... what will the outcome of the inevitable defense be? You'll find out soon enough haha!

Looks like the spy's discovered that although he may look just like the one she'd loved, this medic is absolutely nothing like him. Whadayaknow!

I don't own TF2, but this fanfiction is mine! I'll be uploading a new chapter fairly shortly, just so ya know. I have almost all of it typed out so I plan to get most of it out before the new year, since it's been dormant for some time.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

She knew she had to eliminate the threat to her teammates, but exactly how she was to do that she didn't yet know. For her to take them all on at once would be suicide, and her efforts would surely be in vain.

She held back for just a moment or two to try to get a plan together. By the tunnel stood a soldier, heavy, demo, and pyro, with a medic teetering on a small overhanging bit of the tunnel. An engineer stood in the background, laughing as his enemies struggled with his gun.

"I have to do something..." she mumbled. Things didn't look good, but she had to at least try. Cautiously she backed away and got herself hidden, putting her electro-sapper back in her pocket and drawing her ambassador. For a moment she took careful aim before firing.

The resulting crack echoed through the canyon and from her vantage point she saw the engineer drop to the ground. She'd taken him out first to prevent the rebuilding of his machines, making her team's time a bit easier.

Now the enemy team was on edge. They knew that because their engineer had dropped dead from seemingly nothing, leaving a trail of blood on the rocks behind him when he slid down that they were being watched. When he saw the bloody hole in the engineer's forehead the enemy heave called out, "Sniper!"

Sneaking farther out of sight the spy grinned to herself. She hadn't been found out and would get at least one more chance to help her team out. As she covertly watched the enemies change their formation to a slightly more defensive one, making sure to still be ready to ambush her team. They all made themselves smaller by crouching against the rock wall as much as possible and one in each pair outside the tunnel was now facing away from their partner. The medic still stood on the ledge; he had the cover of the rocks and wasn't going to worry about the sniper very much.

Now it was time for the hard part. She could hear her teammates pushing the cart through the tunnel and attempting to take down the sentry in their path, and knew they were nearing the end.

A determined look flashing into her eyes she jumped from behind the rock, darting back and forth and ducking behind rocks on her way to the ledge above where the ambush was waiting to happen.

The medic must have heard her heavier-than-usual footsteps, for at the last minute he whipped around to face her. It was clear that he was about to offer hsi team a warning of the incoming danger but if she wanted to succeed she had to prevent that from happening. Skillfully she drew her butterfly knife and, locking it into the open position, threw it at her target. It hit, embedding itself in her neck.

He groaned in pain but didn't manage to call out his warning. As he staggered slightly in surprise and shock she was given that few extra seconds to reach him and finish the job. As soon as she reached him she took the knife from his throat, spun him around, and plunged the weapon into his back. His body went limp within a few moments, at which point she threw him behind her. The rest of his team might already suspicious; she didn't need a body falling on them.

Not wanting to waste a single moment and keep the element of surprise on her side as much as possible she quickly turned her eyes to her next victims. Without a moment of hesitation she jumped down, landing between the pyro and demoman. Before either of them could fully turn she flipped out her spare knife, stabbing the pyro in the back before spinning around to strike the demoman.

In seconds the two of them fell, leaving her fully exposed to the others. In the face of danger she grinned; at the very least, even if she did die here, she'd heightened her team's chances of getting by.

The heavy stared her down for a second or two before his brain registered the rapid train of events that had just happened.

"I see spy!" he cried out momentarily, spinning up his minigun in preparation for his retaliation. He would see to his dead teammates later; for now he had to deal with the threat at hand.

The spy looked to her left just in time to see him prepare the attack. Knowing the distinct sound of the minigun spinning up meant she had only a second or two to get out of the line of fire, she searched for an escape route. By the time she'd recovered from her assault and regained her composure, deciding on a plan of escape, it was too late.

She closed her eyes and waited for the shower of bullets to wash over her. She knew she would die here, but she was glad she'd at least saved her teammates. Even if she couldn't carry on with them, she knew they would go on to do what they'd been planning all along.

She felt the bullets rip through her skin and cried out in pain. She lost track of how many times she was hit after the first second or two. Tears streamed down her cheeks as the heavy's toy ripped her apart.

"SPY!" she heard a voice yell. It sounded faint but she knew it belonged to one of her teammates. Weakly she looked to where the voice came from to see the scout running toward her, a bit faster than usual. It was the last thing she saw before she blacked out.

************

She could hear voices in the distance as she slowly came to. It took her a while to fully come into the world of consciousness but eventually she made it.

Opening her eyes she grimaced in pain. Her view revealed steel bars and plates, which she recognized once her eyes refocused to be a second floor with a railing. She could see sunlight filtering into the room from one or two entrances.

"What... where am I?" she muttered. She reached up to rub her head, which was throbbing quite painfully, but stopped halfway. The pain in her arm was convincing her to stay still, at least for the time being.

"Ah, you are avake!" the medic exclaimed happily, clapping his hands in delight, "Ze ozers vill be happy to hear zat. One moment vhile I fetch zem."

For a few moments she waited for the others to arrive. When they did everyone but the scout was present. She chatted with the lot of them and told them how she'd come to be in this condition when they asked, but her mind wasn't there. Her mind was too busy wondering, worrying that the scout had been killed in his attempt to save her.

Soon enough the medic ushered them all out, wanting to do a few tests to determine her stability. Once he was done and was sure she'd hold up for at least a little while he left her to rest, saying sternly, "You need rest. I vill leave you be."

She nodded as best she could, lying her head down. It was only now that the excitement had wound down that she really took in her surroundings.

She found that she lay on a bed made of straw, probably scavenged from the buildings that they had to go by. The building was rather bland, part of the floor elevated, leading to the outside. Her bed rested against the wall, just beside the door on the ground level.

She was just about to get some of the rest that her medic had prescribed, but something caught her attention before she could. She heard footsteps coming toward her. Instinctively she reached for her gun despite the pain she was in, thinking it could be the enemy come to finish her off. When her bandaged hands grasped nothing a frown crossed her face – she'd fast realized her weapons were on a table on the opposite side of the room.

After a few moments the intruder came into sight and she immediately sighed in relief at the sight of him. She said softly as he neared her bed, "When you didn't come to visit with everyone else I thought you'd died getting me out of there..."

"Aw, those dumbasses that were in our path couldn't lay a finger on me! You, on the other hand..." the scout started, his eyes a mix of both happy and sad, "Why would you do something so reckless, spy?"

"I had to! It was the only way to stop their ambush."

"Yeah? Well, you're pretty freaking stupid, then! We could've taken care of them... as a team. You don't have to play the hero all the time!"

Before she could respond he fled. As he turned to leave she could've sworn she saw tears dripping from his eyes. There was nothing she could do about it now, though, since she couldn't very well move. The doctor came in not too long after the scout's departure. Seeing that she still wasn't resting he injected her with one of his drugs. In seconds the fluid was flowing through her veins and she lost contact with the world of the awake.

*************

"Vell, it looks like you've made a full recovery... almost. Vell enough to hold your own, in any case," the medic reported, as he removed the dressings that covered the majority of her body.

"Still in pain, though..." she complained.

"Zat vill not change for some time. You're lucky to have gotten out alive, pain is the least of your problems right now."

She nodded, knowing he was right. She would have liked to rest a little longer but knew taht her bi-daily doses of medigun treatment had already sped up her healing process; she really couldn't complain too much. She also understood from the information she'd gathered during her downtime that they would have to get moving sooner or later.

While the scout had gotten our out of the danger zone the rest of the team had duked it out with the two remaining enemies by the tunnel. In the end they'd come out ahead. The scout, wanting to keep her safe, had stayed well away from the bomb while everyone else escorted the cart further.

They'd crossed two of the checkpoints before they'd stopped, and were now halfway to the third. Not only had they wanted to keep going, but they also wanted to find somewhere safe and secure to bring her so she could recover in relative peace. The medic, having traveled this path before, had pointed out this little room, where they had dominance in the area where the entrance was located and very little chance of being attacked from the other side.

Once her bandages had been removed she smiled gratefully, though it was a bit of a false smile. Other than the fact that her body was fairly damaged and she was now bald, something had been bothering her lately. Since the scout had stormed out on her a few days ago she hadn't so much as caught a glimpse of him.

He caught onto her gloomy mood quite quickly. "Spy, vhat is vrong? You are able to valk and be a part of ze team again, are you not? You should at least appreciate vhat I have done for you."

"Oh, I do! I do appreciate everything you've done for me," she started. For a moment she thought of how she should word her response before answering further, "It's just... why has the scout been avoiding me lately?"

"Ze boy is avoiding you because he is mad at you. You had him vorried sick viz zat stunt you pulled, you know. Zought you vouldn't vake up."

"He's... so worried he's mad?"

"It vill pass soon enough. He vill be talking to you again in no time," he smiled, "Now, vhy don't ve join ze ozers? Ve're about halfvay to our goal... zey all vant to get going."

She agreed, getting up and gathering her equipment. Feeling slightly embarrassed about being bald she quickly grabbed hold of her mask, slipping it over her head. As she finished suiting up and walked outside to join the others she tried to look at the bright side. At least she wouldn't have to worry about taming her hair to get the mask on for a while.

Upon walking out into the open air the intensely bright sun washed over her. Instinctively she shielded her eyes and looked for the payload from behind her little strip of shade. Just as she'd been told it was a little more than halfway to the next checkpoint.

She smiled. If what the doctor said was right the end would be at the point after this one. Even if things hadn't gone exactly as planned up until that point they were still advancing toward their goal and would soon finish this one way or another.

::End Chapter 12::

Well, the spy took her chances and, with the help of the scout, made it out of there alive! But at what cost?

New chapter coming soon, and I don't own the amazing game this is based on.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Good to see leetle girl is feeling better!" the heavy grinned, slapping her on the back happily when she joined them outside. She grimaced in pain, her body not quite fully healed, but nodded and smiled nonetheless.

"Sorry for holding you guys up... what d'you say we finish this thing now?" she suggested. She knew she wouldn't be at the top of her game for the rest of the mission, but that was no reason to hold up this operation.

"Yes, zat is a good idea. At zis point ve are just vesting time," medic agreed.

The sniper nodded, getting ready to push the cart. The scout followed the sniper, glancing backward at teh spy without saying a word. With that the rest of them joined the two at teh cart, pushing it to the second-to-last checkpoint. Every so often an enemy would attack them, but usually they came alone and went down fast.

Soon they were well on their way. Now the real challenge was upon them. According to the medic, how'd drawn up a battle plan of sorts in the dirt beside the tracks, this last leg would be the hardest of them all.

Before they turned the corner to tackle the final part of this journey the scout approached the spy. Pulling her aside rather forcefully he ducked into one of the nearby buildings. An overly nervous look in his eyes he hissed, "Don't you dare do anything stupid like that again! If you do, I swear I'll kill you!"

"Whoa, whoa... scout, calm down! I wouldn't have put myself in danger back there like that for nothing. You have to understand that. If I hadn't done that they'd have ambushed you full force and killed you guys!" she defended.

She made the motion to back away from him but only succeeded in pressing herself harder against the wall. The rage-filled look in the scout's eyes and his uncharacteristic hostility was starting to frighten her. For a few moments they stood in silence, the scout trying to calm down somewhat, before he answered.

"I don't freaking care! Just don't freaking do it again, alright?" he yelled. His voice seemed calmer but he kept her pinned against the wall.

"Scout, you have to understand: we all have a common goal here. If we want to reach that goal, risks have to be taken. To get there some of us may have to give up our lives, but if that happens we know their death won't be in vain," she argued. She understood that he didn't want to deal with the deaths of his comrades, particularly her by the sounds of it, but this was a war and sacrifices had to be made.

For just a moment or two he stayed silent. Then finally he sighed and shrugged. It was clear by his body language that he was still very much worked up, but was working to restrain himself. He muttered hotly, looking away stubbornly, "Fine..."

"Fine? So we can get back to finishing this now?" she questioned, a surprised tone to her voice. All of a sudden he was more or less calm again, and this sudden attitude change confused her.

"Sure, what the hell. Might as well get back out there," he nodded, "Do what we can for the team and all that crap. But remember this... I won't let you get hurt like that again."

"Okay, okay... I get it! You don't want me to get hurt!" she huffed. She was slightly tired of hearing him say that. Quickly she regained her composure, a smile growing across her face. She had to admit it: the fact that he cared so much was really sweet. Without any warning she launched herself from against the wall and embraced him in a hug.

Slightly surprised by the action he jumped up. He stuttered, "W-w-what?"

"Don't worry... I'll try my hardest to stay safe. But only if you do the same," she smiled, "And thanks... for caring so much. It means a lot to me."

"Really? You're not messing with me, are ya?"

"No scout, I'm not messing with you," she laughed. Quickly she pecked him on the cheek to show she was serious.

He slumped somewhat in her arms, letting the unexpected gesture overtake him. It was only there for a fleeting moment, but he loved it nonetheless. He recovered from the pleasant sensation soon enough.

He was about to open his mouth to express his appreciation when the spy spoke, "Now, you ready to show the enemy that this is one team they really shouldn't mess with?"

"Hehe. Those dumbasses won't know what hit 'em once we get at 'em!" the scout laughed. Smiling at the spy he clapped his hands, ready to get back to work.

Together they exited the side room to see that everyone had made some progress while they'd been busy arguing. Already teh cart was almost at the bottom of the hill. Although they had only a little area left to cover it was clear that this would be the toughest part; an almost continuous wave of enemies were trying their hardest to push the cart back. They weren't going to surrender so easily.

"Where scout and spy go for so long?" the heavy bellowed over the roar of his minigun.

"Yes, vhere vere you two? Ve're almost zere, und yet you vere novhere to be seen," the doctor complained, making sure to keep his beam of healing light trained on the heavy.

"Ya ain't dead yet, are ya?" the scout asked in a half-joking half-serious manner. When he received no reply he continued, "Ya worry too much, doc! And now that we're back in action this is gunna be a cinch!"

"Do not be vorried? It vas you zat nearly kidnapped me at gunpoint, mien friend! But no matter... ve have vork to do. You two do your zing so ve can get zis over viz."

"Right," the spy smiled. She snuck a glance to the scout before slapping on a pyro disguise. He nodded and the two understood what the other would do.

In the midst of the action it was easy for her to disappear without cloaking. Playing the part of a severely injured member of the RED team she managed to hobble tot eh entrance of the base. Before moving on she stole some extra heals from a passing doctor.

"Now... he'd better act quick or I'll be found out..." she muttered, ducking into a small stairwell. If she wanted this mission to succeed she needed a distraction.

Sure enough he soon made his appearance. She worried that the sentries set in each hiding place would stop him in his tracks, but pushed those troubling thoughts to the back of her mind. He knew how to take care of himself.

Without giving any form of warning the scout bolted out from behind the cart. Bullets flew past him, but he managed to dodge every one of them. While the sentries were trained on him, trying to take him down, the spy quickly switched disguises. As everyone focused on the scout she went in as an engineer, tactically placing an electro-sapper on each of the real engineers' machines.

Among all the commotion she managed to do her business. Just as everything was going to hell the scout ducked away, his body beginning to move slower due to fatigue and exhaustion. As soon as he was able to rest safely everyone else began to push the cart the last few meters to the final checkpoint.

"You won't be building any more of those damn machines... not while I'm here," the spy murmured, letting her blade sink into the backs of the two enemy engineers. Suddenly without disguise in the middle of the battlefield she found that she had to fight her way back to her team to ensure her safety.

"Nice work, mate! You two really made this all the easier now that the sentries are down," the sniper commented, smiling after seeing her backstabbing spree to rejoin them.

"Yeah, thanks... now let's get this over with."

The medic nodded. The scout soon rejoining them they stuck it out for this final leg. Each of them took a turn fighting off the enemies as the others inched the cart forward. Soon they were nearly finished.

"Mien friends, get away from ze cart! Ve cannot be viz it vhen it reaches ze destination!" the medic cautioned, backing away from the bomb slightly. If they could push it with enough force now the cart would glide ahead of them a bit and they'd be able to finish this safely.

Everyone followed his word of advice, removing themselves from the cart as it crawled closer. The heavy was teh only one who stayed by the device's side. He continued to push the cart, having not heard the medic's warning.

"Heavy, get away from the damn cart!"

"Ze bomb vill go off vhen it reaches ze station... you vill die if you stay zere."

He must have not heard the doctor over the roar of his minigun. Still, he pushed the cart, on the lookout for any approaching enemies. By this time, however, the remaining enemies were staying well away from the docking station. They knew what was coming and didn't want to be a part of it.

"Where puny team go? Bomb is-"

Before he could finish the air around him erupted in a fiery explosion of white and yellow and red. Before the onlookers' very eyes the heavy was caught in the massive explosion. Had he been able to he would've run, but at this point he didn't have much of a choice; in seconds he was burned to a crisp, falling into the fiery pit of death when the glass floor below him collapsed.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit..." the scout cursed. He never wanted to see one of his own go down, but to see the heavy go in such an insane and unforgiving way was almost too much.

"Forget about him, dummkopf. Ze best ve can do at zis point is make sure zat he did not die in vain. Once ze flames calm down a bit ve can continue; ze chemical in ze bomb vill burn only for a few moments, und zen ve can go."

The scout and spy slightly appalled at the statement, shared a look of discontent. For a doctor, even if they were in a warzone, he was proving to be rather brash and heartless. But at this point, there was nothing they could do about it; he was the only one who knew the way, so they had no alternatives to trusting him.

"But... what about him, huh? He don't deserve that!"

"No! Ve must continue on."

"Medic, what about numbers? How are we supposed to go up against the announcer with four people? Should we maybe recruit some of those defeated REDs?" the spy asked. She was beginning to have her doubts about the plan.

"It doesn't matter. I assure you, ze woman is veak. She acts like she is all zat and is damn good at controlling ozers, but she herself is veak," he assured them.

Unknowing of what to say or do the spy, sniper, and scout nodded. This man had met her in person and knew how to get to her, so the best thing they could do right now was take his word for it and hope for the best.

"Alright, then... if dragging others along would do us more harm than good, we'd best get going, I suppose," the spy agreed hesitantly, looking to the scout and sniper. Whatever they were to do, it was better than standing here exposed to those they'd defeated and those who were hunting them.

Within moments the flames had died down to the point of it being safe. As soon as they were able to they moved forward. Carefully they made their way down into the pit. The heat was still rather intense and would stay that way for some time, but it was manageable.

At the bottom of the bit they stepped over the debris that had once been the floor and the bomb. Looks of disgust and dismay crossed their faces as they were made to step over their fallen friend, his body charred to the point of being almost unrecognizable.

Leading them onward the medic pointed out a door, hidden among the debris. He announced, clearing the way and opening the door, "Zis vay. Ver are almost zere."

::End Chapter 13::

The medic is confident that they'll be able to beat her as they are right now, but is he perhaps underestimating her? He did, after all, only see her for a short time before getting reassigned... I think he's a little cocky here, not thinking right, driven by his anger. That's no good... could get them in some serious trouble, if ya know what I mean!

New chapter is on its way! :D


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Ve must go zrough here, und after zat ve vill almost be zere," the medic told them, pushing the large burnt-black door open and walking inside.

"You sure you want to do this? I mean... you know..." the scout whispered to the spy, staying behind briefly, "There's only four of us and even if he does know what's coming, we don't... maybe we should wait...?"

The spy smiled. Even when they were so close to their goal, putting this whole thing to rest and avenging everyone who'd fallen in the countless battles conducted by the announcer, he was still worried that things could go wrong. Even now he was putting his hate of their enemy aside somewhat in order to be protective of her.

Even though she still had her doubts, she wanted to continue on. As she stepped forward to follow the medic she said to him optimistically, "Come on, scout... we're so close now. How COULD we back down now?"

He stayed silent, debating whether or not he should continue.

"C'mon! If we don't do this now, when will we?" she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him forward with her, "How would you feel if you didn't come?"

The sniper, who'd been staying relatively silent aside from the occasional grunt or gasp as he walked behind them, spoke up finally, "The girl's got a point, mate. Things may seem grim, but we're here now. If we go back we'll be caught and killed, so the only thing we can do is move on."

"We can't do this without you, scout... I can't do this without you."

He hung his head and sighed. He knew that if they lost any more members of this team their plan would fall through. And there was no way he could leave the spy's side. For better or for worse he would see this through with her.

"Move, shnell! If ve do not hurry, ve vill not make it. Ve need ze element of surprise, yet," the medic urged, walking briskly through the hall.

"Let's go. We got some major announcer ass ta kick," the scout said, now walking wilfully alongside the spy. Things may not seem like they would work out, but she and the sniper were right. They had a good guide and this was just something they had to do.

It wasn't long before their walk through the desolate and painfully bland hall came to an end. Soon they found themselves in a small circular chamber. As soon as they were all inside the door slid shut behind them. The scout and spy jumped in surprise while the medic stood calmly, staring blankly at the bland grey walls that surrounded them.

"It is a pressurization chamber. Ze radioactivity, however small, vill be removed from ze air und our bodies before ve can continue."

Just a few moments passed, but with nothing to do it seemed like so much longer. Finally the door to the rest of the secret underground base slid open, allowing them access to what they wanted.

"Come zis vay. Ze control station for zis facility is right down zere."

Willingly they followed him yet again, now down a plain hall with doors on each side. They could see the end of the hall up ahead but never reached it, for when they were about halfway to the end the medic pulled open one of the doors.

"It should be in here, mien friends."

The room was dark with not a single light on. They entered nonetheless. Once they were all inside they heard a loud bang from behind them. All at once the light that had been filtering in from the hall disappeared, now just a row of silver light visible from beneath the closed door.

Minutes passed as they stood there in the dark before the lights flickered on. Control stations lined the walls. Lights flashed and screens displayed the battlefield they'd just fought on. After taking in their surroundings they focused on the area around them. It didn't look like they were in trouble at first, but when the scout went to examine one of the control panels he was stopped dead in his tracks by an invisible force.

"Dude, what the hell!" the scout burst, rubbing his nose to ease away the pain. Quickly he tried again, meeting the same result. Growing ever more confused he gently placed a hand where he kept being halted. Sure enough it too was stopped, his palm pressed flat against an invisible barrier.

"What's going on here?" the spy voiced nervously, steadily growing more frantic. Wanting to believe that it was just their imagination she tried as well, unfortunately finding that it was indeed real.

"It appears ve vere found out... stay quiet und calm. Zere has to be a vay out yet."

They waited then in silence, waiting to see what would happen next. Would they really escape? Would they still be able to reach the announcer? At that point only time would really tell. They stood there waiting for what seemed like hours, frantic and nervous thoughts running through their heads. Finally their waiting ended, a shadowed figure emerging from a door on the other side of the room.

"Looks like you've worked damn hard to get here, soldiers," a female voice said, the figure walking toward them. As she grew nearer they saw that she wore the uniform of a soldier, though the right half was blue and the left red. On her head she wore the customary soldier's helmet, her long blonde hair flowing out from underneath it. Her face boasted a nasty-looking scar.

"What're you going to do with us, mate?" the sniper asked in quite the demanding way. Whatever fate they'd be meeting, he wanted to get it over with.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I won't be doing anything with you. I have other, more important things to do. I'm only here to escort you to the announcer, and then it's back to my regular duties for me," she explained, looking her prisoners up and down.

"You're takin' us ta the announcer?" the scout gaped. To his teammates he whispered, "This could be our chance! She's taking us right to where we need to be... this is gunna be a piece of cake!"

"Dummkopf!" the medic growled, "Zey vill not let us go about our business. Ve are prisoners now.... you thing zey vill feee us so zat ve can attack zeir leader?"

The scout, being shown the vital flaw in his plan, promptly shut up. The medic was undoubtedly right. They were now in the control of their captors, their chances of completing their mission as they'd planned more or less flying out the window.

As their captor took out a notebook and began to scribble down some notes the spy thought hard about their predicament. When she couldn't think up a viable plan she fretted aloud, "What do we do now?"

"Ze best zing ve can do is vhat zey say. If ve are lucky ve may get out of zis."

She nodded, watching their captor with an observational eye. If there was even a second-long chance to make an escape she wanted to recognize it so she could act on it. Her captor soon put away her notebook and approached their glass cage.

"Well, now that I've make sure everything is alright, I'd say it's about time to head out," she said, throwing a handful of handcuffs through the open roof of the cage, "Each of you handcuff your hands together and handcuff yourselves to someone else. I don't want any trouble here."

"You vill not get avay viz zis, you know! I assure you zat ze announcer und everyone under her vill pay for vhat zey have put everyone zrough," the medic hissed at her, a crazed look in his eyes.

Laughing to herself she shook her head. For a few moments she turned her back, allowing them some time to do as she'd asked. When she returned from the control panel, where she'd sent a quick message to her higher-ups, she saw that they hadn't complied with her simple demand.

"You maggots do realize I have much more forceful and... painful ways of getting you to cooperate. I suggest you do this now and get it over with," their captor barked, giving them one last chance to give themselves up.

"Vhezer you take us by force or not, ve do not care."

The others disagreed with his statement. Not wanting to be put through any unnessisary pain. Nervously the sniper, spy, and scout locked themselves up with the provided handcuffs. It was by no means comfortable, the three huddled together, but they knew it was better than the unknown alternative that was being offered to them.

Scowling at his comrades he growled, "Veak! You are all veak! Can't you see zat zis is exactly vhat zey vant? Schwienhunds... how can you expect to defeat your enemy if you give up like zis?!"

"You can stop any time now, medic," the soldier complained, rolling her eyes.

"Vhat do you mean, dummkopf? I vill never surrender to ze likes of you!"

"No really... you can stop this now. There's no use keeping up the charade."

The medic fell silent, looking nervously to the surrendered group behind him. It almost pained him to do this, but it had to be done. He'd completed his mission and it was now time to let the soldier take over.

"Fine, unlock ze door und let me out of here, zen," he told her.

She did what he said, striding back to the control panel and pressing a few seemingly random buttons. Seconds later a door-sized portion of the glass cage lifted upward toward the ceiling. His escape route revealed he walked nonchalantly to join the soldier. When he was well out of the way the door closed behind him.

"Sorry zat zis had to happen. It vas fun vhile it lasted, but now it's time to accept zat ze chances of you succeeding are slim... at best. Don't get me vrong, I have come to like you all, but..." he told the prisoners. With that he pressed a few more buttons on the control panel, a glass lid covering their enclosure. Gas soon began to pour into the chamber from one or two vents, putting the prisoners to sleep.

*************

"What... what happened?" the spy muttered. Slowly she opened her eyes. She saw nothing but darkness, an eerie pitch black. Growing slightly nervous her mind was left to wander. What had they done to her? What did they plan to do? Where was she? Where were the others? She wanted answers but she knew even then it wasn't likely that she would get them straight up.

For a few moments she was made to stay there, though she couldn't sit still. After crawling around on her hand and knees she found that she was in a cage similar to the one she'd been in before the gas had knocked her out.

"Anyone? Is anyone there? At least give me the chance to see what's going on...!" she said loudly, a slight throaty growl in her voice. To that she thought she heard a response from the sniper, but he sounded too far away; she couldn't make out what he was saying.

For a few moments she retired herself to sitting on the floor, waiting for things to get going. There was no use fighting and exhausting her energy when she couldn't even see what she was doing.

Once she settled down she found that this was exactly what her captors had wanted. Before too long she heard a booming voice announce with a slightly sadistic tone, "Remove the blindfolds. It's time for them to be... educated."

Seconds later she could feel something being ripped off her head, and light suddenly flooded her vision. It took her eyes a few moments to adjust to the change, but soon she got a good look at her new surroundings.

Just as she'd thought she was in a smaller holding chamber, the walls crystal clear so she could see her captors as clearly as possible. Behind her stood an entirely new medic, how held her blindfold in his right hind. He stared ahead with a blank look on his face.

To each side of her stood another cage, one for each of her comrades, and in front of all three stood a regal-looking chair, an older woman sitting comfortably in it.

::End Chapter 14::

Well... now we know why he was so cocky! Nothing is ever what it seems... XD

New chapter coming soon.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Glad to see you've all recovered from the sleeping gas. This truly wouldn't be as satisfying if... other circumstances had risen," the woman in the chair commented, as she looked the three of them up and down and ran her fingers through her frazzled greying hair.

The spy and her teammates, each in a separate clear prison, glared at the woman before them. There was no way they were happy about their current predicament, but at the moment they had to just take what was given to them and go with the flow. This would be the most sure-fire way to survive.

"Now, as you might have guessed, I am the announcer. As your recent... suspicions have caused you to assume, you should think that I control every factor in this war. You are correct in thinking this; in this battle I can influence both sides, give or take, create or destroy..." she told them bluntly, laughing to herself softly. She quickly got hold of herself and, straightening her tie – left half blue, right red – and turning her attention back to her prisoners.

They'd had their suspicions about the matter for some time, but hearing their enemy admit it in person still came as a surprise to them. They could tell she was serious; her calm and serious composure proved that. Still seated calmly in her chair, her red and blue suit giving off a look of total confidence and power, she eyed her play things.

"Why would you do something like that, you wanker? People are dying out there for a cause that doesn't even exist!" the sniper cried out, banging on his glass walls in a failed attempt to escape.

"That's where you're wrong, worm. And learn some respect! Guard, punish him, if you will." – she paused to allow the sniper's guard to punch the man, nearly knocking him out – "The cause for all of this is my amusement. Trivial as that may seem to you, I'm actually doing the world a favour."

"A favour? How...?" the spy muttered, growing a bit confused.

"Enough of that," the announcer interrupted, as if suddenly bored with the previous conversation, "You three went through a lot to get here. I'm actually quite surprised... never did I expect you to reach me."

"What the hell! How could you have known this would happen? We took every measure to stay secret..." the scout burst, utterly confused as to how she could have known everything they'd done in the past little while.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" she laughed manically in an evil mastermind style. After a few moments she calmed herself down and continued in a civil manner, "You don't really think I'd be that naive, do you? Once someone commits themselves to RED or BLU they commit themselves to me. And once that happens, I see EVERY action and hear EVERY word. There is no escaping."

That seemed to shut up not only the scout, but the other two as well. It was clear that she'd dealt quite the blow to their spirits. They now realized that every single thing they'd done had been for naught. There was no longer such a thing as freedom.

"Now it looks like you've come to accept the truth to an extent, it's time to have some fun. You three are special. You went through enormous lengths to get here, and it's painfully obvious that you have a good level of talent. I'm willing to present you with a proposition."

She stopped there, as if to build up tension and anticipation for what she was going to offer them. Much to her dismay their moods remained the same. Maybe she'd broken them a little too fast or a little too much. She would continue nonetheless, knowing their attitudes would change soon enough.

"What I'm going to offer you is something I've never offered to anyone... ever. If you can make it through the tests I have in mind, to a degree which satisfies me, you will be granted your freedom."

Slightly awestruck they stared at her, unsure of what to think. Being the first to voice their collective thoughts the spy questioned, "What do you mean, you'll set us free? You said not even a few minutes ago that we could never escape! If this is just a way to mess with us even more..."

Again she burst out laughing, humoured by her prisoners' confusion. "I did say that, didn't I? Well then, you three are a special case. If you can complete my tests, freedom will be yours. You can do whatever you please at that point – stay, go, it doesn't matter to me."

"Hell yes!" the scout rejoiced, "We'll do whatever it takes to live freely! Just wait, spy, soon we'll be out of here and free for the first time in years!"

The spy nodded. This sudden change in opportunity had her ecstatic, to be sure, but she wasn't going to get her hopes up completely just yet. Knowing what this wicked woman did on a daily basis purely to be entertained, what she had in mind for their tests could be neither pleasant nor easy.

Giggling slightly, for what she had in mind would be truly amusing, the announcer cleared her throat. "Alright, if you're ready to take on my challenges, let's begin. Each of you has a guard standing in your cages with you. To be released from the cage, you have to kill them."

The spy looked behind her to where her guard was still standing, holding her blindfold. He'd barely moved since removing it from her head. By the expression on his face it was clear that he hadn't been told of what would happen. Nervously the man, dressed in what seemed to be the customary red and blue attire of this establishment, looked at her, scared for what he now knew what would happen to him.

"Please, don't do as she says... it'll just lead to something worse, and you know it. Being her slave isn't all that bad, really... you guys would have it easy. She seems to like you..." he pleaded. He didn't exactly adore his quality of life, but he didn't want to die on the battlefield.

The look in her eyes was sincere as she answered, "Really, I'm sorry. I don't want to kill you, I really don't. But I have to get out of this place. I'll do whatever it takes to get out of here and forget..."

With that she lunged at him, wanting to get this over with. He fell to the ground, the sudden weight of her crashing against him knocking him off balance. He struggled as she placed her hands around his neck. All she could thing about was completing her task, and that by doing so she'd be closer to a new life.

For a moment or two he flailed beneath her, trying to get out of his pinned position. When that didn't work he resorted to a more forceful method of freeing himself.

"I don't want to die!" he cried out, reaching into his coat pocket and whipping out a taser. Without hesitation he switched it on, the electrified light jumping between the two conductors dangerously. Knowing he didn't have long before the spy would definitely trump over him, he thrust the device into her chest.

The surge of electricity surging through the spy, her muscles spasmed involuntarily. In that moment of her immobility the man kicked her off of him, jumping up and shuffling away to quickly catch his breath.

As the spy slid across the ground, coming to a stop against one of the nearby clear walls, she watched her opponent. Soon he was ready to defend himself properly. It would be another moment or two before her nerves would calm down and she'd regain control of her body, but she knew that in the meantime she had to mentally prepare herself.

Being unable to properly move her limbs, it was all she could do to look around. She managed to catch a glimpse of her two teammates' battles, and relief washed over her when she saw that they seemed to hold the upper hand. Once she knew her friends were doing alright she turned her focus back to her own predicament.

Her opponent seemed to be just standing there. Even though he obviously wanted to live, he wasn't taking any action to ensure that he'd come out of this alive. There was no way he'd ever taken part in the announcer's war; either that, or he'd become to desensitized by being out of the front lines and by this woman's side for so long that he couldn't function as a fighter any longer.

Still, he had some spunk to him. He could get himself out of tight situations, something that was always a useful skill. The spy would have to step up her game if she wanted to finish this quickly. But how?

It was then that she realized that she had a weapon with which to beat her opponent. She'd automatically assumed that she'd been stripped of all her weapons, but she'd been wrong. She hadn't noticed it at the time, but after she'd been tasered it had fell from her pocket, sliding just a little distance away from her.

As soon as she again had control of her body she launched herself at the weapon. Soon enough it was back in her hands, her weapon of choice. Now that she had her butterfly knife at the ready she knew she would fare far better in this fight.

"I'm sorry..." the spy muttered softly. Masterfully she flipped the blade open, its metal gleaning slightly in the artificial light. Wanting to get this over with – for it was hard enough to have to kill this man when he hadn't done anything to her personally – she bolted forward at him.

When she was close enough she swung at him, the knife aimed at his throat. Just before impact he realized what was coming his way, moving to defend himself. Having no time to move out of the way he merely shot his arm up to protect himself. The blade sliced through his sleeve effortlessly, burrowing into his flesh and leaving a rather nasty cut.

He screamed in pain but didn't give up, stabbing the tazer at her throat as she withdrew her blade. Slightly disoriented by the searing pain in his arm he missed his target.

"Oh, I love this!" she heard the announcer clap as she watched their fights unfold. This man had been right, no doubt: by doing this she was doing exactly as the evil woman pleased. But it would also lead to her freedom. She didn't like it, but it was a compromise she was willing to make.

Finally she saw the perfect opening after a few minutes of steady fighting. Her opponent was standing there ready to defend himself when he quickly followed her gaze to glance at the announcer. In that brief moment she went at him. Before he could react she took him by the shoulder and spun him around.

He managed to dig the taser into her dominant shoulder, but by then it was too late. Her arm was already heading downward, the knife held steady in her hand. Though his last minute attempt to keep living did weaken her attack, it did nothing to save him. Within seconds the knife had sunk into his back. He fell to the ground promptly.

As if she'd been waiting for this to happen – which was more or less the case – the spy's jail cell rose from the ground. It soon was dangling above them, suspended by the industrial strength wires that the announcer had acquired from Mann Co. It was only natural; she did own to warring companies, and such a thing would be hard to provide for without help.

Immediately she rushed to be reunited with her teammates, who had also completed their goals and been let out of their cages. As they conversed and talked of what they would do next a few more of the announcer's slaves entered the scene to drag the dead bodies away.

"We have to do whatever we can to get out of here, you got that?" the scout growled confidently. He was determined to succeed no matter what.

"No doubt. We'll do anything possible to live free of all this crap," the spy agreed.

"Well, mates... better get this over with. We won't win our freedom back if we just stand around here talking. Whadaya say we get on with it?" the sniper suggested. He looked away from his mates to glance at their captor. The others did the same.

The announcer seemed pleased to see even this slight motion. It meant that they were ready for more without her having to force them into the mindset further. They were right where seh wanted them: under her control.

"Well, it looks like you all completed your tasks, and quickly might I add!" she congratulated, clapping her hands in anticipation of what she had planned next, "I wasn't wrong to take notice of your abilities."

"You almost sound satisfied... but there's no way you're going to let us leave yet, right? You're too twisted to let us go that easily," the spy said softly. In her voice was a pigment of hope as she wished herself to be wrong.

"It was some good entertainment, I'll admit that. But there's no way you're off the hook yet," she answered, "I did have quite a few tasks in mind for you, but I've decided to scrap most of them based on your performance. You (might) be happy to know that you have to do only one more thing to win your freedom."

::End Chapter 15::

Well, the announcer has something planned, but will our trio be able to traverse her evil desires and win their freedom? Do they have what it takes when up against an evil mastermind who controls an entire war? The odds are against them, to be sure, but sometimes in the most drastic situations people can pull through...

This is it for the chapters I have typed, so I'll get the rest written and typed up by New Years or soon after and posted up here, and you will get to see (read) the conclusion of the whole ordeal! :D


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"One more task? You're not messin' with us, are ya?" the scout questioned, wondering if he'd heard her right. One more task to complete, and then they'd have their freedom? It couldn't be that easy.

"Yes, one more task."

"And then all of us are... free? Dat's awesome!"

The scout and sniper rejoiced at the answer. Finally they'd be free. The spy honestly did want to partake in their joy, but found that she wasn't able to. Something just didn't seem right about this whole situation and she couldn't celebrate with this feeling nagging at her.

While the spy's teammates rejoiced the announcer sat calmly in her chair, watching over them with intrigued eyes. She spoke not a word. Her body language, however, was still speaking very clearly. The smirk she wore on her face told the spy that she still had something terrible planned, that there was a flaw of some kind in the scout's conclusion.

"You still have something planned... you're not through torturing us yet. What're we missing this time, hag?" she asked the wicked woman. Her friends seemed not to notice her inquiry, each of them completely absorbed in their premature victory celebrations. She decided not to bother them just yet, not wanting to kill their spirits so soon; the announcer would likely ruin their fun soon enough.

"The boy, he has come to the conclusion that by completing this last task that you will all be free. I never said anything along those lines. While in some senses you will all be free to go, not all will be going in the same way," she cackled.

Upon overhearing this the two settled down, looks of worry fast stretching across their faces.

"I suppose it would be beneficial to all of us if I were to tell you your last task. You'll be fighting each other, and the winner will be free to leave."

"Now you just wait a second here, wanker. The winner gets to leave? What about the other two... what becomes of them?"

"They'll be dead."

"Dead? As in, we'll be fighting each other literally until one or the other dies?" the scout questioned, barely believing his ears, "You want us to kill our friends?"

"Correct."

For a moment the three of them stood there silently in shock. They'd known that they'd have to do something horrible, but had the possibility of this happening had never crossed their minds. This was unthinkable.

"First I think the spy and the... sniper will go against each other. Yes, that should make for an interesting fight," she said devilishly, sitting back comfortingly and waiting for them to get to it.

The spy and sniper's reactions mirrored each other. Neither wanted to go on with this personal show of the announcer's, but both wanted their freedom. It took a few moments to get over the initial shock of the statement that had been thrown at them, and when they did they frowned. There had to be some way out of this – they knew the chances of that were slim, but they had to try to negotiate with their captor nonetheless.

"We'll do anything other than that... anything. Whatever else you throw at us we'll do if it means a chance of freedom, but this..." the spy started nervously.

"Yeah, this just isn't right," the sniper agreed, completely onboard with trying to find another way.

A victorious smile crossed at least the scout's face as they watched the announcer's reaction to their plea. She seemed to be pondering what they'd said. Soon, however, what little hope they'd gotten up crashed to their feet.

"I'm sorry, but whether you want your freedom or not, I want to see this fight take place. I'm sorry, but there'll be no way of getting out of this," she denied.

"What the hell! You're not freaking sorry!" the scout burst. In frustration he clenched his fists, trying not to act out just yet. He had no doubts that his spy would succeed, but he also knew that regardless of what he thought, acting rashly right now would only lead to undesirable consequences.

"You're very right – I'm not sorry in the least."

"You can't expect us to do this!" the sniper objected, a frantic look crossing his face. He didn't want to go through with this if there was any other possible way.

"Oh, I very much can. And you can expect that if you don't do this, not only will you downright be denied what you so desire... harsher things are in store for you."

The three of them looked to one another, the atmosphere around them growing increasingly tense and worried. After a moment they nodded and moved closer together, silently refusing to break the bonds they'd created on their journey there.

The announcer sighed, obviously growing frustrated with her play things. Seeing that further explanation and convincing was necessary she sighed deeply, "It had come to my attention some time ago that you lot had stricken up a... friendship with one another. I knew this could lead you to me, and lo and behold it did, and I gave every effort in terminating this disgusting... thing."

"And looks what good it's done us so far..." the scout muttered, looking up at his captor with a look of discontent.

"In any case, it's time to end this 'friendship'. So if you don't comply with my request, I'm afraid I'll be forced to take more drastic measures."

"I won't allow you to hurt them!" the scout burst, his fists beginning to shake. He didn't want to get hurt any more than he already was, but even if he ended up in that position he would put himself at risk if it meant saving the spy.

"Alright then..."

With that she snapped her fingers, one of her goons emerging from the door behind her throne. The three before her readied themselves, but the little they were able to do to prepare themselves did them no good. In seconds the enemy was among them.

Before any of them could react the young man had the scout in his grasp, a force-o-nature pressed against his head dangerously. Before becoming associated with the announcer he must have been a scout himself, and one of the better ones at that – none of them had ever seen someone run so fast.

"Hold still," he hissed, pressing the gun harder against the scout's head, "Or I'll give everyone a real show and blow your brains out here and now."

The scout whimpered the slightest bit, the sudden attack taking him by surprise. He looked to the others, fast calming down. So things had taken a turn for the worse and been turned up a notch, and he was no being held hostage. Though he hated to admit it, the only thing they could do right now was move on.

"Why you..." the spy growled dangerously, very unhappy that her scout was in such a predicament, "You let him go, damn it!"

"Silly girl," the announcer laughed evilly, "I'll let the boy go, but only once you two have done what you've been told to do."

Faced with the decision of her friends or the one she was starting to really love, the spy found herself torn. For a moment or two she stood there to think, looking nervously between everyone. Finally she made her decision, a sad smile crossing her face. Though it pained her to be doing this her decision had been made. Reaching into her suit jacket's pocket she drew her knife, her grip tight.

"So that's how it's going to be how it is, eh mate?" the sniper commented darkly, reaching to the quiver on his back to draw his kukri.

"You know I don't want to do this..."

"But you are. No excuses, spy... whatever your reason, you've chosen, and no amount of reasoning will change that," the sniper nodded. He found that under the circumstances he couldn't be completely angry at her. Still, he wouldn't allow that way of thinking to cost him his life – he would do whatever it took to assure his freedom now that their friendship was being torn apart.

The spy nodded sadly, now certain that there was no backing down from the challenge she'd presented him with. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to function at full force due to her previous and more recent injuries, she determined that she'd still give it her all in hopes that this wouldn't pose too much of a problem.

The scout, seeing that there was nothing he could do to change what was happening, stopped struggling a bit and positioned himself to properly observe the fight. He knew she was fighting for him, and so would watch and cheer her on in any way he could.

"There's no way you're going to lose to him, spy! He's told you so much about himself and you've seen him fight, but he knows nearly nothing about you! You've got the upper hand, here," he cheered, glaring at her with an encouraging fierceness in his eyes.

She merely looked in his direction, nodding silently. Making sure to not have her back turned on her opponent for too long she quickly turned back around, ready to begin the battle that would determine their fates.

"I guess it's time to do this...?" she said sadly, preparing herself the last bit. She wanted to be as ready as possible for this to make sure she'd survive.

"I suppose so. It was fun while it lasted, mate," he nodded, tightening his grip on his kukri. With the knowledge that the spy wasn't at her peak physical ability he decided that now was as good a time as ever to launch his attack.

Saying nothing more he charged forward, swinging his blade dangerously. Once he got too close the spy managed to dodge, launching a counterattack at the same time. Neither was able to completely dodge the other's blade, and each emerged with a somewhat serious gash on their bodies.

"Not bad. Looks like this might be a little more difficult than I thought, even in your current condition," the sniper commented, reaching up to wipe the blood from his cheek.

"Right..." she nodded. In truth she didn't want to speak to him any longer, for this was hard enough already. Hearing his voice only made her remember that if everything went as planned he would soon be forever silenced, and that thought hurt her almost as much as any physical wound.

The sniper again charged, an air of determination about him. He intended to finish this as quickly as possible so he didn't have to deal with the possibility of being killed by a friend. Just as much as it hurt the spy to have to do this it hurt him.

The spy again dodged, though just barely, and each felt the other's blade sink into their flesh. For a fraction of a moment they thought that neither would come out on top this time, but in the brief time of thinking this the sniper decided to take things one step further in his attempt to win.

Grunting slightly the sniper powered forward despite the fact that he knew the knife embedded in his arm would only bring him more pain this way. As soon as he withdrew his kukri he stopped short, his leg held out to trip the spy. Surprised by the sudden move the spy wasn't able to stop stepping in time, falling to the ground.

She let out a short cry as she fell, but found that the sniper wasn't done with his attack just yet. Still while she was falling he slashed away, running his kukri along her left leg. In the very least this would present her with another disability, giving him a better chance of success.

Screaming in pain as she writhed on the ground, she clutched her bloody leg. The sniper stood and watched, being courteous enough to at least allow her to recover slightly. Knowing that despite having this new injury she would have to continue, she tried to get back into the game.

She breathed deeply, trying to accept the pain. In an attempt to stop the bleeding somewhat she took her knife and cut the seams of the right sleeve of her suit jacket, ripping it from the remaining threads. As soon as she'd wrapped it around her leg she rose from her spot on the ground shakily.

The scout, growing worried of the outcome of the fight, looked over his shoulder at his captor. His voice frantic as his thoughts raced about his head he asked, "She'll make it, right? There's no way my spy will lose to him, even if it looks differently right now..."

He shrugged and said uncaringly, "I really don't care. Now shut up and stay still."

The scout looked back to the fight sadly. Something told him the fight was almost over and wasn't sure if he wanted to see the result.

::End Chapter 16::

So, I told myself that I wouldn't write this chapter until the new year so it could count toward my 500k words for 2010... but I got right back into it and desperately wanted to write it since I know it's so close to the end, and this is what happened... a chapter earlier than expected!

I'm excited for this. This experience shall birth someone who's been in my mind for a while, and it's so close to being done... if my mini-plan is correct, the next chapter will be the last.

So... that for sure won't be coming out until the new year. It'll come out early in the new year, though, so you won't have a cliffhanger here for too long.

Until next time!


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The spy had barely gotten up when the sniper launched another attack. Already she could feel that her movements were slower, as even when she simply tried to stand she wobbled to and fro. Though she put in an effort to dodging the kukri, she was no longer physically able to do so.

Once more she yelped out in pain, staggering backward as the wound across her abdomen was created. Her breathing grew short and quick as she glanced at the sniper.

"Just give it up, mate. You're at too much of a disadvantage already... giving in would be less painful," the sniper suggested, trying not to tear up. When she looked at him with a look of defeat in her eyes he began to walk toward her. If she allowed it he would end this here and now.

She allowed him to grow near, to the point where his kukri was pressed gently against her neck. It pained her to have to hear the scout's desperate cries for her in the background, but knew that there was no backing down now.

The sniper hesitated, unable to finish the job just yet. In these moments the spy looked up at him, hiding the faintest of smiles. She whispered to him as she moved her attacking arm ever so slightly, "Since you found me out in the desert you always were just a little too trusting."

Knowing something was amiss his eyes widened and he attempted to back away. The spy was no longer quick on her feet by any means, but she was completely ready to attack and jumped at the opportunity.

Swinging her arm upward with precise aim she glared at her opponent. Though he did more to escape at the last moment, his actions came too late. The spy laughed silently to herself, for he was now at a better position for her attack.

She felt her butterfly knife meet resistance but forced it forward nonetheless, hoping that this last-ditch effort would save her hide. Unfortunately these thoughts were fleeting, for her attack led to a completely unforeseen event.

As her knife entered his chest he fell backward in surprise, his right arm flailing outward. Before the spy could recoil she felt the kukri, which he still held in his hand with a tight grip, slice the flesh of her neck.

"NO!" the scout cried, lashing out in an attempt to break free as he watched the spy fall to the ground. His captor was able to restrain him, though just barely, and the scout found that he managed to calm down slightly. Still, as he gazed at the scene playing out before him, his clenched fists shook violently.

Needing to know exactly what the situation was the sniper staggered toward the motionless body. With each step he took blood dripped in clots from the very-nearly-lethal wound in his chest. He had to admit, he was surprised her attack hadn't pierced his heart. But now wasn't the time to be thinking of such things – he had to make sure this was really over and not just some professional faking.

He didn't particularly like the fact that he was resorting to this, but he put his displeasure at the back of his mind as he placed a foot on the girl and shook her rather violently. Aside from more blood spilling out from the deathly wound in her neck to pool on the ground around her, he received no response.

"I... I think she's dead..." the sniper muttered, disbelieving the fact that he was saying such a thing. While he was fighting he'd held some nasty thoughts within him, but now that he saw her lifeless body lying there and wasn't aware of any other threats everything was starting to sink in.

"Excellent work!" the announcer applauded giddily, "Not as entertaining as I'd have hoped, though... she must've suffered too much damage on the way here. But no matter – sniper, I declare you the winner."

The sniper stayed silent, not quite sure how he should act now that his fight was over. With the realization of what he'd done setting in he began to panic. He muttered nervously as he clenched his own blood-spilling wound, "I killed her... she's dead, and I'm the one that killed her! What have I done?"

"You did your job, mercenary," the announcer told him casually, "I told you to kill her and like the little mindless slave you know you are, you obeyed and carried out my wishes."

"But she was my friend, part of my team..." he muttered frantically, "How could I even think of doing such a thing? I would never..."

At that point the scout found it to be impossible to hold back any longer. His fists still shaking madly he burst, "How could you think of doing it? You stupid asshole, you didn't freaking think! You just accepted it and did it, no questions asked!"

Seeing that it was in his best interests to try to sort this out he turned to the scout and said softly in an effort to defend himself, "Mate, I know you felt pretty deeply for her, but I had to... she did the same. She was the one that turned on me and presented the challenge..."

"TO PROTECT ME! TO MAKE SURE I DIDN'T SUFFER! To try to provide us with escape and an opportunity to start anew together... who were you protecting, huh?! Who were you willing to give your life for while you were slicing her up?"

The sniper fell silent, having nothing to say. He hated to admit it, especially now, but the scout was right. Everyone he'd cared about had turned out to either be a double agent or had been killed long ago – he was fighting for nobody but himself. Unsure of how to respond he merely hung his head to look at the ground shamefully.

"I thought so..." the scout growled. It was taking everything he had to hold back.

"Scout, I really am..."

"You're what? Sorry? You're not fucking sorry!" he yelled frantically. Finally he snapped and found that he couldn't stand by on the sidelines like this any longer.

The announcer's triumphant laughter penetrated neither the sniper's nor the scout's thoughts. The scout was too focused on making some sort of a plan so he wouldn't be completely screwed while the sniper, seeing that things were about to get uglier, prepared himself for the worst.

"Please, scout... stay calm. If you react negatively it'll only be what she wants... the spy knew that but went with it anyway, and died to protect you. You don't want her death to be for nothing, do you?" the sniper pleaded, seeing that the scout was about to break over the edge. Knowing that he was in no condition to fight and could feel his strength slowly draining away with every moment, he struggled to find some alternative to the inevitable.

"Stay calm..." the scout muttered under his breath. For a moment he found himself at a loss for what to do, but it wasn't soon before he came up with an idea. Looking across the floor he saw that his bat had fallen from his hands when he'd been taken hostage, but that no longer bothered him, because he soon would have something better in his possession.

Fleetingly he looked behind his shoulder to his captor, a glint in his eyes which rarely found him. A smirk crossed his face as he suddenly kicked his leg out behind him. He knew that what followed would logically happen, but still felt pain and almost regretted his actions when the announcer's goon fell on top of him.

"Why you...!" his captor started, scrambling to get up and regain his composure. By then, though, it was too late. As soon as his weight was lifted off the scout he was off on his way, scrambling for the weapon that had been held to his head only moments earlier.

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to borrow this... you don't mind, do you?" he said smugly, turning around. He knew that the chances of the announcer letting him get away with this were slim, and so decided that taking out the closest minion would be the best thing for him right then. Swiftly he ran behind his captor, placing the gun to his head before he knew what was happening. Without any hesitation he pulled the trigger.

He didn't stick around to see the chunks of flesh and brain spill everywhere in a shower of bloody mess. Now that the nearest obstacle was taken care of, it was time to move on to his unfinished business with the sniper.

"Please, scout... there has to be another way. Can't we just talk about this? The both of us know why we're here, and that's to kill that wretched woman... we all played into her trap regardless of what's going on right now, and the only logical thing to do is to remove her from the picture. Otherwise this'll go on and on and on..."

"At this point, I really don't care..." the scout growled, cracking the sawn-off shotgun open and dumping out the empty shells. Luckily when his captor had fallen to the ground a few more unused shells had fallen with him. Uncaringly he swooped down to scoop them up, placing them carefully in their chambers.

"Yes... yes, let your anger get the best of you. Put on a show for me, I need some entertainment," the announcer giggled, watching the events unfold with anticipation in her eyes. She knew that whatever was coming next had to result in some kind of excitement.

"You, shut your freaking face," the scout growled, turning in her direction and firing a shot at her. He glared at her intensely as she jumped out of her chair in surprise, the bullet barely missing her. "He's completely right and I know that, but you have no place in this fight any longer. As soon as I'm done with him it's your turn."

Though it was clear she resented him for attacking her like that she kept quiet, wanting to let things go their own course. She'd deal with him once he was done what he'd set out to do.

Nodding to himself more than anything he turned back to the sniper. He wanted nothing more than to slowly torment him, but knew that stooping to that level was too animal even for someone in his position.

"You have one chance... and make it quick," he offered bluntly, growing closer to the spy's killer and placing the gun to his shaking head.

"I'm sorry scout, I have nothing more to say... if you're as bent on doing this as you obviously are, nothing I say will change your mind anyway," he mumbled, admitting his defeat openly. He knew that he deserved whatever was coming at him even though it pained him to admit that.

The scout removed the weapon from his head, cracking it open. For just a moment he thought he was off the hook, that he'd said something right. That was before the scout pulled another shell from his pocket and placed it in the empty chamber.

"You coward! First you play into her hands, then you kill my spy, and now you're not even man enough to defend yourself! The world doesn't need people like you roaming around, ready to mess things up!"

"How can I defend myself? I can barely stand with the wounds that your deceased friend gave me!"

"You should still be trying."

With that he decided that the conversation would go no farther and finish this. Whether he made a good argument or not there was no redeeming himself for what he'd done in the scout's eyes. Without any warning he pulled the trigger, letting loose both of the shells just in case, closing his eyes as he did so. Though he knew he was avenging the spy, he didn't want to see it happen.

He heard the thump of the sniper's body as it hit the floor and knew that it was over. There was no way somebody could survive two blows to the head like that. Now it was time for the inevitable. Turning to the announcer he awaited the fate he knew was coming at him.

For a moment they stood in silence before the announcer said excitedly, "Oh, good show! That was absolutely magnificent!"

"You're a sick person."

"Yes, that may be so... but it's great entertainment. And you've passed the tests. The choice is yours: stay and serve in my wars, or go to be with whoever it is that you have out there?"

"I've no one left... the war tore apart my family and killed my friends, and now the spy is dead..."

"Well, you could always..."

He knew that there was no other sane choice. He hated more than anything to have to do this, but he knew that it was the only way he could keep living at least a little. Hanging his head he looked up to her, defeat in his eyes. He knew that if he tried to attack more of her goons would come after him. It was futile.

He decided that he would kill as many of her people as possible on the battlefield, trying to avenge the spy. If he didn't have anyone to be free with he knew that it was no good, and so this seemed like the best possible thing for him to do.

Once she got his silent answer he moved to the spy's body for one last goodbye. There was nothing he could do for her now, and hated to think of how their time together had been cut short like this. He could feel a change happening inside of him, not a big change, but a change that would alter his personality to be sure.

Taking the spy's knife in his hands he made a silent vow to keep her living in his actions. He didn't know how he'd do it, but somehow he'd try to embody as much of her as possible. It would be a lonely road, but it was one he willingly condemned himself to.

::End::

There you have it, the end of the story! It's kind of a segway into an RP character I created that ended up being covered in dust because the RP he was supposed to be in hasn't really done anything at all. I'm going to try to revive him soon, see if I can fit him and my soldier in somewhere.

Sorry for not posting this sooner... I had it done a while back but with everything I've been doing it just kind of got buried. I need to update my other things too, as well as upload one or two entirely new TF2 one-shots that I made over these last couple months. Why I didn't do all this sooner is beyond me... now I have to have an uploading party! _


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